There are three houses to the right of Ruslan’s home—and all of them are empty.
Leaving his hometown in Moldova was a real possibility for him too. While Ruslan hoped to work locally as a ploughman to support his family, opportunities were limited. Continue Reading…
Bosco Nsabimana, a father of eight children and the owner of a wholesale crop business in Rwanda, had big dreams.
He dreamed of expanding his business while empowering his community financially, spiritually, and emotionally, but there was a problem. The only microfinance institutions he was familiar with didn’t align with his ambitions.
Coupled with Christ-centered financial services and community, underserved men and women experience restored dignity and spiritual, personal, social, and material transformation
Did you know that farming is one of the most effective jobs for fighting poverty? According to The World Bank, growth in agriculture is two to four times more effective in raising the incomes of families living in poverty, compared to other sectors.
At HOPE International, we believe that equipping farmers in underserved areas around the world is an integral part of the solution to many of the world’s most pressing needs surrounding poverty:
“Any business is a challenging one right now in Ukraine.” -Serhii, a farmer in western Ukraine
When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s economy shrank by about one-third—the largest annual fall in more than 30 years of Ukrainian independence. 18 months after the war began, Ukraine’s economy ministry reported that their gross domestic product grew by 2.2% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2023.
This is welcome news, but the stark reality remains: It’s challenging to do business in a country at war. Continue Reading…
In 2010, Small and Micro Enterprise Program (SMEP) Microfinance Bank, a Christ-centered microfinance institution serving families in Kenya, celebrated a major distinction: It became the third deposit-taking microfinance bank in the country to be licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. But along with its approval, the central bank issued one caveat: SMEP needed to add investors to its ownership pool.
It sounded like a simple request—yet it proved to be anything but.
When Leonora Calipay’s children finished school and she came home to the Philippines, she knew there was something more to her life than retirement.
Leonora’s neighbor noticed her desire to do meaningful things in her free time, so she taught Leonora to sew rugs. With this new skill, Leonora started her own small rugmaking business. She hoped to empower her neighbors—especially the single mothers in her community—to make a living through the same craft.
