HOPE intern Sa-Eun visits a market where many HOPE Congo clients work.
I just wanted to throw in a plug for HOPE’s internship program. Every year, HOPE puts 15-20 interns to work in the field and in the Central Service Unit in Lancaster, PA (Yeah intern class of 2007!). It’s an awesome opportunity to learn, grow, and play a valuable role in the alleviation of physical and spiritual poverty. Sa-Eun (pictured) arrived about a week after I did to serve as an intern in HOPE Congo’s Operations department, and she’s already living and breathing Christ-centered microfinance. She’s spending her time interviewing clients, establishing baseline metrics, translating, facilitating data collection processes, and finding ways to make client identifications more efficient. If you know any college students with the head of a banker, the heart of a missionary, and the soul of a development worker, have them check out HOPE’s internship program at www.hopeinternational.org.
This past weekend, some friends and I went to see what life is like outside the city.
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. 
![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)