International - The Pilgrim Foundation

	Visiting the Dominican Republic with Hope International	10-30-11 (0) Comments

Microfinance, Savings and Credit Associations, microloans….what do these terms bring to mind? Maybe you assume this is a subject for MBA’s and banking executives? Would you ever connect these words with sending poor children to school? We had the privilege of traveling with Hope International to see their work in the Dominican Republic. Our goal was to get a clear understanding of how these concepts can literally transform lives from hopeless poverty to productivity, pride and spiritual salvation.

We were in the D.R. to witness a marvelous partnership between Esperanza, a Dominican non-profit, and U.S. based Hope International. We headed into a small village in the middle of hundreds of acres of sugar cane. The unpaved road seemed to go on forever.

Along the way we passed by little villages where the sugar cane workers live. We were told that large corporations own these fields and the shanties in which the workers live.

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The poverty in the region was typical of the D.R. but this place has a reason to be joyful. Once a week, an Esperanza loan officer makes the trip to this remote place for a meeting. This officer literally brings the bank to these people. We were privileged to observe one of these meetings. The loan group (“clients”) assembles in the one building in the village. The meeting opens with worship and Bible teaching. On this particular day, they were discussing the story of Abraham and Isaac.

Next, the business starts. At this point, clients are able to make loan withdrawals, make payments on their loans, check balances and discuss their account. Basically, whatever you do in the U.S. with your bank teller, they are doing here. Just before business started, the group realized that one of the members of this client group was missing. The policy is that all clients must be present to start the banking business. All of these clients have taken small loans of $30-50 to expand or develop private businesses of their own. If one member is missing, it is up to the group to either find her or cover her payment for that meeting. You can imagine how quickly the group went to work locating her. After about 30 minutes, a well-dressed older woman came rushing into the group. She looked distressed and explained that she had been at a funeral for a family member who had taken his own life. Even in her grief, she quickly went to work making her payment to avoid the group being held up longer. You can see how this accountability encourages responsibility and good stewardship. If one person defaults, the repayment responsibility falls on the shoulders of the entire group. This policy translates into a community holding each other responsible for making good financial and lifestyle choices. Mix in Christian education, prayer, and economic enterprise and you can see how this is transformational! The power of this approach is obvious in the 95% loan repayment rate that Hope typically sees among their clients.

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The clients I spoke with were eager to share their success stories. One woman in particular has a shoe business. Every week she goes in to town and purchases shoes to sell. As we spoke through a Hope employee translator she was asking how big her next loan could be. She was pointing to our American shoes and saying, “I want to buy higher quality shoes like yours to sell”. She is paying back her sixth Hope loan and is ready for more! These small loans have enabled people to accumulate savings (and keep their savings in a safe place) for the first time in their lives. Now, when a child is sick, they have the $10 for medicine, they can pay for school tuition and uniforms, and cover emergencies.

Before they had savings accounts, one household emergency meant financial disaster. Having $50 in the bank can be the difference between life and death in this community.

Over the years I have personally become weary of hand out programs that seem to have no end in sight, creating dependency among the poor and basically threatening local businesses. Hope International provides a productive and creative alternative to that type of short-term help to the poor. If you are looking for transformational work that enables people to lift themselves permanently out of devastating poverty, I truly believe this is the approach to do that.

Learn more at www.hopeinternational.org

	Encouraged in Haiti!	02-06-11 (0) Comments

It is amazing to see what God is doing through our partners in Haiti! My son and I just returned from visiting the Christian Veterinary Mission’s “Give a Kid to a Kid” project (GKK) and the Restavek Freedom Foundation. The GKK project has seen tremendous success. The momma goats that the kids earned through classes at school are having babies! The children are now able to start selling goats and buy more momma goats. This is the first income source many of these families have ever seen! The village we are working with is tremendously poor but over many years of good leading from a local pastor, the investment of long term missionary veterinarians, and a great blessing from God, we are seeing success. The leaders of this program live in the village and are now paid “trainers” who teach the kids to raise goats. They then act as “goat social workers” and check in on the kids and animals to make sure everyone is doing well. Finally, the children are taught the business skills necessary to sell in local markets and make some income. We hope to see this program expand to include more children in the village and additional schools. I am so proud of these local trainers and their commitment to this program. This confirms to me that change is possible in Haiti. I’m praying for this village to finally rise above the poverty line.

Next, we visited the Restavek Freedom Foundation in their new transitional home. This is a beautiful home for young girls rescued out of lives in servitude (“restavek”). We met the five girls living there now and will forever remember their gentle and sweet spirits. These girls will have the opportunity to go to school, have a safe place to live, and good health care and nutrition. In addition, they will have access to counseling and love from the Christian house staff. The lives of these girls have been snatched from the edge of a precipice. Some have gone through tremendous suffering and I trust that with prayer, counseling and patient love they will heal from their wounds and learn that their lives are precious to God. We are encouraged at the hand of God on this ministry. He has clearly orchestrated so much of getting this house up and running. We trust He will continue to sustain them. Please remember the leaders of both ministries in prayer. They all need spiritual protection.

I found that the tent cities are by far the most disturbing part of the earthquake aftermath. The conditions people are living in there are horrific. In my opinion any programs that result in people moving into better housing would be worth supporting. There are no sewage control systems in most of them. Babies are being born into a perilous situation. Seeing these sites up close was sobering.

With that being said, I do trust that God has a clear plan here. If people will act when He gives them opportunity, He will use our mustard seed sized efforts to accomplish great things. I have seen how much is done by Him in Haiti. Many of our partners are in awe of what He is accomplishing that they know was not because of their efforts! I have seen miraculous connections made between people at just the right time to catapult good work ahead. I saw a microenterprise expand 100 fold in one year as the person in charge stands in awe obediently moving forward as God gives her wisdom. Entire lives and courses of direction are being altered for good. Single mothers are buying land and considering building houses and now have the means to do it. Haiti is not hopeless, though it feels that way looking at the big picture. I believe that God wants us to see the individuals and change one life at a time and He is doing exactly that in Port au Prince!

	How you can help Haiti	01-22-10 (0) Comments

So many of you have inquired about the status of the kids at the orphanage we have visited in Haiti. By God’s provision, we have only lost one precious child. We know that he is with the Lord and hope that his two young sisters are comforted by that. We are thrilled to hear that Claire, a little girl I met on my last trip, is now in the arms of her forever family. It took three years of paperwork and an earthquake to get her there! Thankfully, New Hope in Haiti, the organization that supports this orphanage, has been able to get money and supplies in to meet the needs of the kids. I have been there myself and have found this orphanage to be a witness for Christ in a very dark and poor community. Even in this environment of shortage and desperation, the orphanage has been sharing their supplies with the community, demonstrating the call to “love thy neighbor” in ways that I fear I would not have the strength to carry out. New Hope has been sending in relief flights from their home base in Atlanta and this is getting very costly. If you would like to contribute to this work, please go to www.newhopeinhaiti.org

Here’s one of the postings from the New Hope in Haiti US coordinator:

“Though it has been an emotional trying day, I see God’s goodness. I have learned to just trust Him and that is what I will continue to do. Continue to press on, pursuing the opportunities that he puts before us. We have 300 children that God has given us to watch over and I will be faithful to the call. Rest assured none of us are stopping until all is well. The country is going to be put together person by person. New Hope in Haiti can’t go in and set up medical clinics and save the nation in a single swoop, but we can make sure that these 300 don’t need medical attention, that these 300 don’t need to stand in relief lines to get food. If you saw what I have seen in the last 48 hours you would be full of faith. Keep your eyes on God and your heart focused on His goodness, because HE IS GOOD!!”

Our friends with Christian Veterinary Mission are also hard at work. My husband and I have spent time with Dr. Keith Flanagan and Dr. Kelly Crowdis. Kelly is the veterinarian who is leading our “Give a Kid to a Kid” program to teach young Haitians how to raise production animals. Here’s a note from her blog:

“At dawn I had the truck loaded with medical supplies to go down and sew up and treat the wounds Guerriot’s family had. When I finished them, people just kept coming and I just kept working. Then a nurse showed up, then another and a doctor and we had a clinic set up just like that. We were sewing up things and splinting broken limbs with anything we could find….I have no idea how many people we have treated this past week but I would say at least 400. The hospitals were full and there were limited doctors. Every day has been the same dawn to dark treating wounds. The Haitian docs and nurses staying in the park even treat people after dark. It has been a week of making do with what we had and scrounging and asking for more. I have used all my supplies and part of Keith’s…..Everyone is in shock. We treated people who were buried for 2 days and more. It is amazing what the human body can endure. There is a sense of hopelessness in some but most are just grateful to be alive. We have just been trying to help in whatever way we can.”

From Keith (he and his wife have been in Haiti for over 20 years):

“I met with the Minister of Agriculture yesterday morning and will meet with Dr. Max Millien, the head veterinarian today. Medicines are a priority. The other priority that I see is animal control, especially the stray dogs. There will be an increase in stray dogs as many owners were killed and most walls that contained the dogs in yards are down. Thankfully we just completed a rabies vaccination campaign in the country with maybe 70% plus of the dogs in Port Au Prince being vaccinated. Also a national anthrax vaccination was carried out this past year. Those are two of the biggest zoonotic diseases that we have. Newcastle’s vaccination for poultry is a priority as this time of year is the peak time for this. The Ministry of Agriculture has vaccinators trained to do this, but lacks funds for the vaccine and to pay the vaccinators. Classical swine fever and teschovirus in pigs are two more diseases that are affecting the food chain. We still do not have a vaccine for teschovirus, but have people looking at production of an autogenous vaccine.”

Please consider supporting the work of CVM in Haiti: www.cvmusa.org/Page.aspx?pid=2995

Kelly Crowdis with participants in the Give a Kid to a Kid program

Dr. Keith Flanagan teaching Haitian veterinarians to do surgery

Kelly Crowdis

Keith teaching

Finally, our friends the Conns, who run the Restavek Foundation, are in need of financial assistance as well. They are creating a compound where the children and families they work with can get assistance. Please consider supporting them as they work with some of Haiti’s most vulnerable children.

restavekfreedom.tumblr.com

No matter how you choose to help, please join us in praying for the healing of Haiti.

-Suzanne


	This is our chance to share inspiring experiences, stories, news and needs from the non profit community.

Visiting the Dominican Republic with Hope International

Encouraged in Haiti!

How you can help Haiti