Most of the women in Brazzaville wear beautiful dresses or skirts made of pagne, a brightly colored fabric that comes in bold, interesting patterns. Women buy the relatively inexpensive fabric in the pagne sections of the market and then take their selections to one of hundreds of local tailors. These tailors can create customized and detailed dresses, shirts, and suits at impressive speeds. Mikhal (HOPE Congo’s Finance Manager and my amazing hostess!) helped me buy fabric and commission a few skirts from a tailor named Bienvenu. Continue Reading…
Archives For Staff / Travels
Becky Svendsen
Jun 8 2010
By Becky Svendsen
Staff / Travels
Becky Svendsen
Jun 7 2010
By Becky Svendsen
Staff / Travels
When European powers sat down to divide Central Africa amongst themselves in the nineteenth century, today’s Republic of Congo became a colony of France. Although Congo gained independence in 1960 and you might not be able to tell at first glance, ties between the two countries are still strong. For better or worse, France has left an indelible impression on Congo’s culture, government, and economy. The official language of business and academia is French (the Congolese are way ahead of Americans with fluency in multiple languages), and many Western expats and major business owners are French. One of the happier results: you don’t have to look too far to get a good croissant, or as I was happy to find, a mil feuille (I’ve also heard it called a napoleon).
Becky Svendsen
Jun 7 2010
By Becky Svendsen
News Staff / Travels
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.
I had the opportunity to sit in on the first client trainings for two new community banks today and yesterday. Before receiving a loan from HOPE, clients need to pass through a fairly intensive series of training seminars. By the time they get to this first meeting, clients have met with loan officers in their homes or businesses, but still have lots of questions about HOPE Congo and loan details. At the first meeting, HOPE explains its mission and identity as a Christ-centered microfinance institution, describes its vision for positive impact on clients, reviews the loan products and terms, and explains how clients work together as a community bank and can advance into higher loans over time. Continue Reading…
Becky Svendsen
Jun 3 2010
By Becky Svendsen
Staff / Travels
This past weekend, some friends and I went to see what life is like outside the city. So we boarded a huge Mercedes bus headed north, and five bumpy, wind-blown hours later, we found ourselves standing on the side of the road in a small village called Ollombo about a quarter of a degree shy of the Equator. The people of Ollombo live in small homes made mostly of mud, thatch, and local wood, and the whole community is a pleasantly ordered network of dirt footpaths connecting the market, the soccer field, the school, churches, and homes. At first glance, it might appear that this village has nothing to do with HOPE’s work in Brazzaville hundreds of miles away, but I see a pretty clear connection. Continue Reading…
Becky Svendsen
May 28 2010
By Becky Svendsen
Microfinance Staff / Travels
I’m telling you, there’s a huge demand for HOPE Congo’s services in Brazzaville. Loveline, HOPE Congo’s loan officer supervisor, said to me “In Congo, loans are like manna from heaven. Our clients are so happy, so thankful, so excited to repay.”
Jacinta is HOPE Congo’s Operations Manager, and last week, she shared a story about people in her own neighborhood who are looking for a “hand up.” She was telling some of her new neighbors (she recently moved to Brazzaville from Cameroon) about her job. While sharing about herself personally, she mentioned that HOPE Congo had just disbursed business loans to small-scale entrepreneurs who live in neighborhoods just like theirs. Continue Reading…
![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)