I’m pleased to introduce HOPE Congo’s pioneering community banks! On May 10, HOPE Congo’s first loans went out to fifty Congolese men and women seeking to improve and expand their small businesses. The clients formed two community banks of 25 – one group named itself “Ebenezer” and the second “The Good Seed.” Continue Reading…
So first things first. My name is Becky, and I work for HOPE International’s Central Service Unit as a grant writer. Part of my job is to serve as a go-between bridging the informational gap between HOPE supporters (typically in the U.S.) and HOPE’s 14 international microenterprise development programs – including the 270,000+ entrepreneurs HOPE serves. On a daily basis, I find myself doing some pretty cool things – interviewing interesting field staffers, researching living conditions, answering donors’ questions, and learning about and describing the inner mechanics of microfinance institutions and the challenges our staff and clients face. I love my job! But the thing is…I do all of these things from the gray stillness of my very American cubicle in a very American office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Continue Reading…
Greetings friends!
I’m so excited to finally be able to write my first post from Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo! Before I left, I had originally intended to introduce myself to you over the blogosphere, provide some background on the HOPE Congo program and why I’m here, and give you a bit of a travelogue for my flights to Brazza. But honestly, right now, my mind is racing with the sights, smells and sounds of Brazzaville’s largest market, le Marche Total. Specifically, I can’t stop thinking about the entrepreneurs I met there who recently became clients of HOPE Congo, HOPE’s newest microfinance institution that launched its first loans a week ago. These clients were vivacious and confident, knowledgeable about their business, excited to be a part of HOPE Congo, and full of hope and ambition for the future. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve arrived safely, and I’ve found that HOPE Congo is already impacting families in Brazzaville in powerful ways. More to come as the adventure unfolds!
![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)