After receiving their loans, the clients get a one-week grace period to apply the funds to their businesses (by purchasing more inventory, diversifying stock, renting more retail space, etc). Reimbursement meetings start two weeks after the original disbursal, allowing time for the infusion of capital to bear fruit for the entrepreneur in the form of increased profits. From that point on, clients meet every week for the remainder of the four-month loan period. Community banks come together for an hour and a half to make repayments, receive business training rooted in scripture, share concerns and seek counsel, and pray and fellowship with one another.
Latest update: 100% repayment from both community banks at today’s reimbursement meetings! The day was not without its hiccups, but every franc of scheduled repayments from Ebenezer and Bonne Semence (the Good Seed) was recovered, and clients made it clear that they’re serious about repaying. HOPE Congo’s staff is breathing a collective sigh of relief.
![Before Eveness Mulungu joined the Walusungu (“mercy”) savings group through our church partner in Malawi, she faced days where she and her family ate animal feed because they couldn’t afford human food. But that changed when she joined the savings group. Eveness used her first group loan of about $1.70 (U.S.) to start a business selling doughnuts and beans.
“By the end of my first cycle I made $140 (U.S.),” Eveness shared. “My life is no longer the same now; [I] was regarded as no one in the community. ... This was the first time in my life that I ever touched and owned big money like this!”
Pictured: Eveness, with her husband in front of their piggery—a third successful business that she operates.](https://blog.hopeinternational.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)