When a co-worked shared Evelyn Nyamasoka’s story with me, it felt familiar. Having experienced poverty myself as a child in Rwanda, I know it can be difficult. I’ve seen how poverty robs families of dignity and opportunity.
When Evelyn’s husband left her unexpectedly several years ago, she was abandoned to care for her six children alone. A member of the Doma community in northern Zimbabwe, Evelyn experiences such extreme poverty that the idea of saving anything, even just a few cents, once seemed impossible. Life is hard for Evelyn. She must farm and fish alone, which can be dangerous because of animals like crocodiles and hippos in the area. And with sporadic rains, crops are difficult to grow.
At HOPE International, we consider the Doma a “frontier” community: A group of people who have been isolated by poverty, marginalized, and unreached by the Gospel. When we surveyed some 200 Doma community members, 42% of them reported eating only one meal a day—and according to the Joshua Project, just 1% of the Doma people know Jesus. They live isolated from the rest of the country and receive few public services.
I hear about the challenges of communities like the Doma and it breaks my heart. I believe it breaks God’s heart, too.
But thankfully Evelyn’s story didn’t end there. Strengthened by your prayers and support, HOPE partnered with a local church to start a savings group ministry near Evelyn’s community. When she was invited to join, she immediately saw the group’s potential.
“I embraced the program because I saw it as something that can uplift some of us who are lowly … [it] will help me in the future to be able to take my children to school.”
Here, Evelyn’s story also feels familiar to me. By God’s grace, my mother was also part of a savings group—and it changed the trajectory of our lives.
I remember going with my mother to savings group meetings. Raising children in material poverty was challenging, but I would watch, week after week, as she faithfully saved what she could from her earnings. With loans from her savings group, she paid for me and my siblings to go to school. Looking back now, I don’t know what my life would have looked life without the support of my mother’s savings group.
I am so excited when I hear stories like Evelyn’s. In my more than 10 years in economic development work, I have seen firsthand how savings groups and microfinance services remove barriers—which often feel more like huge mountains—to help families move from a place of shame to dignity. It is beautiful to see!
Around the world, there are millions—over 700 million, in fact—living in poverty. These families are struggling like mine did to provide for themselves and hold on to their dreams for a brighter and better tomorrow.
At HOPE, we want to serve more frontier communities who need our services the most: refugees in Malawi and Burundi, isolated Maasai communities in Tanzania, survivors of sex trafficking in South Asia, and people with disabilities in Haiti and Rwanda—and the Doma people in Zimbabwe. As HOPE’s senior director of savings groups, I can’t wait to see what happens in these communities when they are equipped with financial tools and the hope of the Gospel. We know that we serve a God who can do far beyond what we could ask or imagine!
I think about Evelyn’s six children. And I think of my mother’s testimony as she changed our family’s trajectory, one savings meeting at a time. Imagine where Evelyn’s family will be in 10 years after her initial investment in her savings group!
“I know change will come through these groups. I see that it is transforming [us].” Evelyn
Moses serves as the senior director of savings group programs for HOPE International. He has rich experience in Christ-centered community development, working with Purpose Driven Ministries to train over 4,500 community volunteers in community health evangelism. Moses previously served as a board member at Urwego Bank and country director for World Relief in Rwanda where he provided strategic leadership for program management, church partnerships, and integrated faith into operations. He holds an MA in international development and lives with his family in Kigali, Rwanda.
Watch our new Dreaming Beyond video and read more about the progress we are making toward this catalytic vision.
