by: Scott Vair | President/CEO
Our Home Based Care program is designed to invest in the lives of vulnerable parents and their children, in part through economic training and opportunities that honor their dignity, improve quality of life, and help strengthen and preserve their families. The program participants are mostly women, many of whom are widows.
As participants enter our program, they immediately join a savings group with others at their local church. This phase focuses on overall economic education, from opening a basic savings account to general principles of savings and financial accountability.
After their first year of growing in economic awareness and building a group savings account, the participants receive small business training and enter a four-year microloan program. Through the microloan program, they receive a series of four loans, each slightly larger, that are paid back annually. The series of loans allow their businesses to grow as they work toward long-term success and profitability.
The completion of the four-year microloan program provides the graduates with a sense of accomplishment and sustainability. As primary breadwinners, they are now better able to economically care for their families.
World Orphans hosts a graduation ceremony in Addis Ababa every October to celebrate and honor the graduates of our Ethiopia Home Based Care program. Speaking at the graduation ceremony this past fall, honoring and celebrating these successful, determined, and creative business owners, was my absolute joy.
Even after graduating from the program, the alumni are able to stay connected socially and economically through their ongoing interaction with the church and the group savings program. This also provides alumni the opportunity to mentor and shepherd newer program participants who took their place in the program following their graduation.
Some buy and sell vegetables. Others buy and sell cell phone cards. Others buy and sell soap, charcoal, firewood, water, coffee, tea, or injera (Ethiopian flatbread). They are fabric weavers, jewelry makers, and bakers. Some raise chickens (for meat and/or eggs), sheep, and cows. They set up stands to sell spices, handicrafts, butter, candies, and gum. So much creativity.
In addition to starting and operating successful businesses, they are teaching their kids the importance of school and helping them be successful. Their children now dream of being doctors, engineers, and business owners themselves, growing in confidence through the experience of their parents.
These stories of success are inspiring. These program participants have demonstrated undeniable determination and perseverance. They are strong, courageous, and creative in maximizing the impact of their small loans. They have overcome fear and doubt. It was my privilege and honor to congratulate them.
The graduation ceremony was also a celebration for the pastors, elders, and the Home Based Care coordinators and committees. They, along with our Ethiopian staff, are the ones who lead and make this program happen. They are teachers, encouragers, mentors, and friends to the graduates. They are there in the hard times, when challenges and doubts creep in. They are there, showing up, walking together, and helping participants remain steadfast and persevere.
They remind us of what the church should be—loving, caring, generous, and committed. Committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus. Committed to living out the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37, 39 to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and…love your neighbor as yourself.” (ESV) These servants and their churches are truly shining lights on a hill.
Looking out on the room filled with these incredible, resilient program graduates was one of the proudest moments of my seventeen years at World Orphans. They represent some of the best of what we do, the fruit of ministry to the vulnerable by the local church. I am so honored to be part of this ministry. I’m proud of the work being done, and so very proud of these graduates…and those to come.
This article was originally published in the World Orphans Spring Insight Magazine 2024.