About Thea
Thea has concentrated its resources in its first fifteen years upon work in Rwanda.
Thea’s partner throughout this time has been PCMCA (Partnership Christian Mission for Central Africa) originally PCMCR (Partnership Christian Mission for Conflict Resolution)).
Thea’s input has taken two broad forms:
- Grants for travel and tertiary education for PCMCA’s key personnel, and for the rolling out of educational courses in Rwanda.
- Loans to mutual associations of small business proprietors, to enable the proprietors (often vulnerable heads of households) to meet school fees and domestic expenses during the early stages of business development.
As a result:
- A relationship has been established between George Whitefield Theological College in Cape Town, South Africa, and Christian leaders of small free churches in Rwanda, whose Bible-reading and teaching skills have been enhanced, and who have used these skills to grow congregations across Rwanda and to train their leaders.
- Hutus and Tutsis, and Rwandans resident in the country before 1994 and those entering or returning to it afterwards, have set up businesses and cooperative associations in transport, photography, manufacture, fruit and vegetables, and other areas, and have seen them grow thanks to their countrymen standing surety for each others debts in the event of further misfortune.