Murray Bridge’s African op shop needs a new home
Can you help a Congolese couple continue their community work?
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Can you help Murray Bridge’s African op shop find a new home?
The shop, run by Congolese couple Luc and Delice Mulimbalimba, had to leave its former Bridge Street premises recently after running out of money to pay the rent.
Mr Mulimbalima made an appeal to the city’s council last week, asking them to spread the word as he searches for a low-cost or free space to keep the op shop going.
The shop gave away secondhand clothes and food to people who needed them, he said; and it sold art and craft items to raise money for a hospital, a school and sexual assault survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But it had never made much money.
“It was difficult to pay the rent when you are doing free things,” Mr Mulimbalimba said.
If not a shop front, he hoped someone in Murray Bridge might have a house, a shed or a room from which he and his wife could keep the op shop going.
Murray Bridge Mayor Wayne Thorley endorsed those hopes.
“It’s important that people of goodwill and good nature do good work,” he said.
“All it takes for evil to prevail is for a few good people to do nothing.”
- Contact the Mulimbalimbas: Search for Message “Light Op Shop/African Arts” on Facebook or fill in the contact form at mhcdasa.org.au/contact-us.
- Read more: Couple who escaped murder attempts in Africa start op shop, church in Murray Bridge
