As we walk through the bustling marketplace, the spiritual integration officer at HOPE Congo, Precy Ndongui, calls out “Hello!” in English to anyone who has been part of the HOPE Congo family, and without fail the clients respond with the expected “Hi.” As an excellent former loan officer, Precy knows this call and response well and energetically greets the clients as friends. As we navigated through the market from one busy client to another, clients’ words of friendship and community through times of joy and difficulty stood out. I invite you to meet a few beautiful women from the HOPE family:

“Now I have another family,” says Euridice, a member of a HOPE community bank in Brazzaville. As she smiles and confidently sells us a bag of peanuts, Euridice explains how she has not only benefitted from the business trainings on investing wisely, managing cash flow, and developing savings, but has also grown closer to other women who sell in the same market as they learn together and visit one another.

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