In more than 20 years of pursuing excellence in poverty alleviation, failure has been one of the most effective forces for improving our work. We shared the following stories of missteps in a live webcast this week—not to paint them in a triumphal light or to trivialize them—but to practice transparency and share candidly with others, knowing God’s “power is made perfect in [our] weakness.” Continue Reading…
Annie Rose Ansley
Nov 14 2019
Annie Rose Ansley
News
Over 2 billion people in the world live on $3.10 a day or less.
You’ve likely heard this stat, or something similar. But these statistics don’t tell the full story because $3.10 is just an average: Those living in poverty aren’t making that amount every day. Some days, they may earn $15, but most days, they’re more likely bringing in $0. Often operating their businesses in small communities and selling seasonal products or crops, these entrepreneurs cannot consistently rely on a certain amount of daily or even monthly income to cover expenses. Continue Reading…
HOPE Intl
Nov 12 2019
HOPE Intl
Stories we love
For years, Mary Msoni sorted through bundles of donated secondhand clothing in Lusaka, Zambia, to resell for a slim margin. Hoping to expand, she started selling new dresses, but her household expenses still left her with little money to invest in her business. Her only options for capital were loan sharks who charged exorbitant interest rates. Continue Reading…
HOPE Intl
Nov 5 2019
HOPE Intl
News Spiritual Integration
Life in Haiti hasn’t been easy for a long time. More than half the population lives on less than $2.40 a month, while wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of a select few. For the last several months, government corruption, fuel shortages, spiraling inflation, contaminated drinking water, and food scarcity have caused many Haitians to rise up in protest against a government that has been largely deaf to their cries. These protests are making international headlines. Continue Reading…
HOPE Intl
Oct 30 2019
HOPE Intl
Staff / Travels
by Aspen Pflughoeft, HOPE Trips participant
How do you make your senior year of high school memorable? Perhaps an epic prank day? Senior skip day? Well, I was able to take a different approach: a HOPE trip to meet savings groups in Comas, Peru (pictured above), with my family. When we departed, I had two weeks of classes left. But my dad, who had been on a HOPE trip the previous fall, recognized the immense value in exposing me and my sisters to different languages and communities. Through ten days in Peru, I learned incredible lessons that, a year and a half later, have changed the way I live. Continue Reading…
HOPE Intl
Oct 23 2019
HOPE Intl
Stories we love
Though Ana Cipriano de Sevedia’s education was cut short at the age of 15 because there were no local high schools in her rural Paraguayan community, her love of learning remained. And she’s working hard to create a different outcome for her three sons. “My dream is that they study [at university], that they become someone in life,” she shares. “I work so hard [for this].” 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)