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When Tom Rakabopa and Central Baptist Church first reached out to families living in poverty in Harare, Zimbabwe, they distributed food and other items to fill the great needs they saw in their community. But as he saw some of the unintended consequences of this work, Tom began dreaming of ways they could transition to long-term development. That dream came true when a partnership with HOPE International helped Central Baptist Church begin savings and credit associations (SCAs) in their community, training groups of individuals to save their own money as a safety net in emergencies, to start or expand a business, and to pay routine expenses like school fees.

 

 

Each year, HOPE celebrates a client who demonstrates HOPE’s values of perseverance, compassion, character, and creativity with the Thurman Award. Established in honor of HOPE’s first CEO and his wife, the Thurman celebrates clients who have not only experienced change in their own lives but have also extended that transformation to others in their community. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be posting the stories of this year’s winner and four honorable mentions to the blog. Today we celebrate Mardy Cabalo from the Philippines, our 2013 Thurman Award winner. When Mardy Conde Cabalo of the Philippines awakens each morning, she steps immediately into her roles of mother, business manager, and community leader. Left motherless at age 12, Mardy says she became “both father and mother” to her two siblings, taking on any odd jobs she could find to support them. When she later married and had four daughters of her own, Mardy employed this same hard work and determination, selling cosmetics, clothing, and shoes when her husband’s income wasn’t enough. But even with two salaries, Mardy despaired of sending her daughters to college. Continue Reading...


Comas is one of the many districts of Lima, located about 45 minutes north of the capital. Over the past few years, its population has doubled, as people from the surrounding areas come in search of work. In Comas, HOPE works with a local church partner, Iglesia Alianza Cristiana y Misionera (ACYM), which has started eight savings groups. The groups are mostly composed of entrepreneurs with small businesses they would like to expand. At the savings group meetings, the entrepreneurs learn financial and business strategies, discuss their plans for the future, study the Bible, and pray for each other. After several months, a savings group enters a second phase, and the members may then ask to take a loan from the group fund. Continue Reading…

It is common in our culture to assume that living in extreme poverty must inevitably be a depressing, hopeless experience. People are suffering. Conditions are challenging. Systems are broken. The scale of the problems is huge. Reasons for optimism are fleeting.

Let’s make this a little more personal. When you step back and consider your subconscious thoughts, is this what you expect from those who live in economic poverty? Do you subtly assume that the lack of certain resources and comforts must naturally produce lives full of discouragement—if not outright desperation?

Well, I want you to join me on a morning of visiting clients at their businesses in the Marché Total market in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. The pictures you see below show each client we met that day. I recognize that one picture does not accurately encapsulate a person’s entire perspective on life, but if you had to assign one word or phrase to each picture, what would it be?

Ntibila Gauthier

Gauthier Ntibila started attending church as a result of his relationship with HOPE. Continue Reading…

In this video interview, Pedro Lacen, director of microfinance at Esperanza International, HOPE’s partner in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, discusses the unique role of Christ-centered microfinance in the Caribbean.

Several months ago, Peter Greer, HOPE’s president, sat down with Pedro to discuss Esperanza’s work in the Caribbean. In this excerpt, Pedro talks about the particular impact Esperanza and HOPE are having as Christian organizations and shares a story of how the God Provides films, shown at community bank meetings through HOPE’s partnership with Crown Financial Ministries, are impacting clients through their simple presentation of key stories from the Bible.