HOPE Intl
Jun 13 2013
HOPE Intl
Stories we love
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 Antoinette Aisha Uwimana, honorable mention from Rwanda.
Antoinette Aisha Uwimana of Musanze, Rwanda, wakes every morning to the responsibility of supporting 10 people—among them three orphans and her widowed sister—and to do so, she runs not one business but three. The proud owner of a retail store, dry cleaner, and bridal clothes and wedding decoration rental store, Antoinette models entrepreneurship and determination, having built her business from a small, home-based operation selling tomato sauce. She recalls how she got her start traveling across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo to buy two bags of tomato sauce at a time—all she could afford with her limited capital. Continue Reading...
HOPE Intl
Jun 6 2013
HOPE Intl
Stories we love
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 Evangelista Osoria, honorable mention from the Dominican Republic.
Evangelista Osoria rises well before the sun in Los Alcarrizos, Dominican Republic. The 52-year-old dreams of someday sleeping past 4 a.m., but for now, her elderly mother, three children, three grandchildren, and five employees are counting on her and her business, Yenis Empanada. Evangelista sells popular Dominican dishes directly to customers and sells flour and prepared dough to local vendors who rely on these products to run their own shops. Continue Reading...
HOPE Intl
May 31 2013
HOPE Intl
Stories we love
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 Denis Hrystychenko, honorable mention from Eastern Europe.
Denis Hrystychenko was only 9 years old when his father died, leaving his mother to support 10 children on her own. Many of Denis’ older siblings went to work to support the family, and when he turned 14, Denis joined his brothers in the construction industry, proudly using his earnings to help meet the family’s needs. He planned to make a career of construction, moving over 100 miles from Berdichev, Ukraine, to the capital city of Kiev and sending money home to his family—but God used a documentary film to plant another seed in his heart. Continue Reading...
HOPE Intl
May 20 2013
HOPE Intl
News Photos / Media Stories we love
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...
HOPE Intl
Apr 17 2013
HOPE Intl
Stories we love
“Since joining Esperanza [HOPE’s partner in Haiti], we have seen lots of progress, and we want to continue to grow,” Marie Ledina Larose explains. Marie and her husband of 22 years have five children, and providing for such a large family in rural Trou-du-Nord, Haiti—the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere—hasn’t been easy. The family’s main source of income comes from their shop, Lavira Botanic, where they sell agricultural products like fertilizers. Like many successful entrepreneurs, Marie credits creativity and discipline as the keys to their success.
Natural innovators, Marie and her husband looked to provide their neighbors with a product in high demand. Knowing that many in their community grow vegetables and other crops, they developed their own homemade fertilizer that they sell in used drink bottles. After seeing an improvement in crop yields, many farmers insist on having Lavira Botanic’s fertilizer in regular supply. The product has become so popular that they ship it throughout northeast Haiti to other retailers.
Continue Reading...
HOPE Intl
Apr 17 2013
HOPE Intl
Spiritual Integration
HOPE’s commitment to holistic transformation—addressing the material, social, and spiritual causes of poverty—is shared by our partners around the world. In 2010, Esperanza International, our partner in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, started the Institute for Holistic Christian Transformation to promote a biblical approach to development. In this video clip, Luis Sena, the Institute’s director, discusses the unique perspective the Bible offers in poverty alleviation.
