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
HOPE Intl
Stories we loveHOPE Intl
HOPE Intl
News Spiritual IntegrationLife 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
HOPE Intl
Staff / Travelsby 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
HOPE Intl
Stories we loveIsaac Barnes
Isaac Barnes
NewsDried apricot, raspberry, brown sugar. No, these aren’t candle scents; they’re the delicate flavors of specialty coffees sourced from the highlands of Burundi and Rwanda. In my very caffeinated opinion, coffees from these two hilly countries in East Africa are among the world’s most delicious, and yes, they even fight poverty. Continue Reading…