“We stood there praying for her loan as one Church, even though our places of worship were thousands of miles apart, as brothers and sisters in Christ, in English and in Spanish.”

I wrote this in my journal during a HOPE Trip when my home church in America came to visit the work of HOPE and Esperanza, HOPE’s partner in the Dominican Republic. My name is Aaron Roth, and during 2011, I have been volunteering as a HOPE fellow, working with Esperanza in the area of microfinance operations.

That moment in prayer was one of those moments when I felt like I got a taste of Heaven: a moment of unity between Christ-followers where the Holy Spirit moves within us, breaking down the walls of language and culture. It was like a worship service of praise and a celebration for all that the Lord is doing in places like this around the world. Continue Reading…

As many as 40 percent of the clients served by Esperanza, HOPE’s partner in the Dominican Republic (D.R.), come from Haiti. Lingering discrimination, as well as language barriers, can prevent Haitians from finding decent employment in the D.R., and immigrants are frequently marginalized or even taken advantage of.

In some communities, called bateyes, companies seek low-wage laborers to harvest sugarcane. The vast majority of these workers are of Haitian descent, leading to higher concentrations of immigrants. The back-breaking labor generates little income—but HOPE is at work in many of these communities. Small business loans and basic business training give many the opportunity they’ve been seeking. Continue Reading…

In countries where large portions of the population live on less than $2 per day, purchasing costly hearing aids is well beyond the means of most individuals. To address this need, HOPE International is partnering with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to help distribute hearing aids to over 1,000 impoverished individuals in Uganda and Rwanda. As part of this initiative, HOPE staff members Erika Roberts and Quenton Marty—joined by Adrian Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald, and over 20 other NFL stars representing Pros for Africa—have traveled to these countries to help distribute hearing aids. Below, Erika blogs about her first impressions from the trip.

HOPE staff member Erika Roberts helps fit a hearing aid

I started off this trip thinking that I would not have anything HOPE related to write about until we were actually fitting our Rwanda clients with hearing aids. However, after 8 days of helping to share the gift of hearing, I can say with confidence that the work of the Starkey Hearing Foundation and HOPE International are more similar than I thought. There have been many times after helping restore an adult’s hearing that I have asked how this new ability will aid their businesses and, essentially, their ability to generate income. One man told me that he is a fisherman, and now he will be able to hear other boats coming as well as make better deals with his customers. Another sweet older lady who came to the hearing mission with her sign language interpreter from church wanted to give me a gift after I fitted her hearing aids but did not have it with her. I found out that she makes beautiful bags. Continue Reading…