Campaigns

New Hope

New Hope

Jan 2024
18 Donations
Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

NEW HOPE MICROLOANS is a big-hearted project with an ever growing vision to help people to help themselves and pull out of extreme poverty, through opportunities for income generation.

Our Mission

OUR MISSION is to provide ways for people living in poverty to improve their quality of life so that they can provide themselves and their families with the basics needed for life and thereby gain new hope for their futures and their children’s futures.

In 2018, New Hope started to implement a new model of income generation. It’s called Village Savings and Loans Associations or VSLA. People, mostly women, living in extreme poverty, are invited to form groups of about 20. Seed money—a one time donation—is provided by New Hope to the group to get them started. Then agents trained by New Hope teach the groups how to self manage, including a plan for taking turns taking loans to create or expand small businesses or meet critical needs. Over time our agents are involved less and less until the group eventually continues on independently.

It takes approximately $50 per person to start a VSLA. An entire group can get started for approximately $1000. We have many groups just waiting for the needed funds so that they can start working towards escaping poverty.

For people who previously had incredibly small incomes and certainly no access to a loan to start a small business, or even to pay for critical things like much needed medicines, this has amazing potential for wonderful life change, independence and a lot of new hope!

Zerfay

Zerfay is 33 years old with 5 in her family. She used to sell veggies, but has slowly moved up to selling household items. Her equity when she was selling vegetables was about 5,000 birr, now it is about 100,000 birr! She is doing really well!

Merawi “Joy” VSLA

While in Ethiopia I got to visit a New Hope VSLA group in a town called Merawi. They have 19 members. They were started in the VSLA model and they took turns taking loans from their group to start and expand individual businesses. They worked at their businesses for 2 years while saving to do a joint venture.

Then, while continuing to do their own businesses, they started their joint venture which is a wholesale shop that sells juice, water, canned goods etc by the case. They take turns running the joint store and after their turn, the person in charge for the day takes the day’s profits to the bank and brings back the receipt and gives the next person the key for the next day.

At first the group was reluctant about starting a VSLA because – they couldn’t see how they could save money when they hardly had enough to eat. But after a few training times they started to see the potential. Now they say “we love it!”. They said they are so happy and don’t know how to thank New Hope enough. They say they are “growing and growing”, and they are thankful to God.

  • Women Working at Their Small Businesses

    Emergency Food Relief Being Distributed

  • Success Stories Received from the Field in 2024

    Sendie's Story

    Sendie is a 50 year old woman who supports a family of six.  

    Her parents have passed away and one sister died many years ago from HIV AIDS, and her other sister got hepatitis and also died and there was no one to take her sister’s 4 children. Sendie couldn’t even afford to look after her own one child, but she took in her sister’s children anyway. In desperation, she tried to make ends meet by selling locally made alcohol, but it was very difficult dealing with drunken men.

    Through New Hope’s VSLA project, Sendie was able to start a small business selling items like onions, potatoes, carrots, beet root, garlic, cabbages, etc. It is a good business and all of them are happy not having to communicate with drunken men! She hopes to keep saving and eventually take another loan from her VSLA to buy a washing machine and use it as a family business for her and her children.

    Sendie says that God had a plan for her life to look after these orphan children.  She told us that she thanks God and the New Hope team for providing the VSLA groups and seed money because now she has “good hope” for her future. She said she is very much encouraged as she works with the other 19 ladies in her VSLA who have become her friends. She said that they are able to share a very different life experience now and have a good opportunity to succeed.  She said she appreciates it very much!                 

    Emebet's Story

    Emebet is a 40 year old woman who supports her family, including her mom and her two children. She is from a town called Andabet which is very far from Bahir Dar. Her mom and dad had 10 children in all and were very poor.  Their dad only had one ox and it was not enough to plough the land, so they were trying to farm the land by hand and could only collect a small harvest, and only once a year, in rainy season, because there was no water at their place.  She told us that their lives were very challenging and they lived in deep poverty. At night they were cold because they didn’t have blankets.  

    She shared how they only ate once a day, and the purchase of clothing was impossible. When she was 14 years old, she and her elder sister had an argument and her sister kicked her and so Emebet decided to leave her home. She told us that she walked barefoot for 3 days to get to Bahir Dar.

    In Bahir Dar she faced different kinds of challenges. She had no experience of living in a town and couldn’t get a job. She ended up being forced to work in a private house as a servant.  She made a very, very small salary, and after a time was sexually abused by the man of the family and became pregnant. When the man found out that she was pregnant, he kicked her out of the house.  For weeks she slept out on the street. Then she found another job and worked in 8 different houses, but says that very bad things happened in her life at that time. After some years, she met and married a poor day laborer and had another child. In time, her husband was struggling to feed the family and just disappeared, and to this day has not returned, so she was left alone to try to provide for the family. 

    Emebet was given the opportunity to join a New Hope VSLA (Village Savings and Loan Association) and through it was able to start a small business making baskets and bags. She now makes a good income and can cover all of her family’s expenses and has started to save using a bank account. Emebet now says she has a very happy life with her family.

    She said she wanted to thank New Hope because through it she has able to start her small business and has learned about saving and loans and also learned how to manage and provide for her family.          

    Alemnesh's Story

    Alemnesh is a woman who currently lives in a small rented house in Bahirdar City. She was born and raised in a rural area called Dagi, near Marawi. She is one of six children. Her father is a poor farmer and her mother sells homemade alcohol. Alemnesh’s parents hoped that when she grew up she would be able to help the family, and, being the first child, they gave her special care, covering all her expenses for university.  (In Ethiopia, University is free, but you still have to pay for food and travel etc. and for many poor families this just isn’t possible.) But after finishing university, she couldn't find a job. Many organizations and government institutions are closed due to the civil war, so many young people are losing the opportunity to work. Alemnesh was afraid of being a burden to her family, especially since she was the one they had invested the most in.  She was growing increasingly upset to the point of ill health. It was at this time that Alemnesh heard about the New Hope VSLA Savings Group from one of her neighbors.  She came to New Hope and asked about joining a VSLA. She learned a lot from our program training sessions and started saving by making and selling tea and coffee with the seed money given to her. She has done really well. In less than two years, she is making a good profit, selling up to 800 birr a day, saving up to 300 birr a week, and has taken a loan of 60,000 birr from her VSLA to open an additional business. Currently, she has saved 42,000 Birr.  Alemnesh's idea of ​​working as an employee has disappeared and now she is preparing to hire an assistant for her company!

     She told us that in the next few months, she plans to bring her younger sister from the countryside to live with her and teach her about doing a business.  

    Tehunie's Story

    Tehunie is one of our members from a VSLA called “Life Association”. She is 28 years old. She lives with her two childrens and poor mom. When we first met her, she said it was a very hard time because every day her children were crying because of the lack of food because her and her mom were very poor.  She remembers that the New Hope team came to their aid on 3 occasions, giving them desperately needed food items using the Special Needs Fund.  

    Tehunie was later given the opportunity to be a part of a New Hope VSLA. She became a member and received training and a loan from the seed money provided by New Hope to the group. Tehunie created her own business in front of her mom’s house and she bought an Electric Frier and started to sell potato chips, Sanbusa with lentils and other similar type foods.

    She is now earning good profits each day day selling around 1500 birr, 30% of which is profit, so she is now able to completely cover her family’s living expenses, clothes and medication and also has started to put money into savings weekly through her VSLA. She buys at least three shares a week at 150 birr per share and additionally she has deposited 12,000 birr in her own account. In the future she has a plan to distribute to others who want to sell her product. (The Ethiopian Birr value was recently downgraded to approximately 88 birr to one Canadian dollar.)

    She said she is very thankful and would like to first thank God and second to thank New Hope and it’s supporters.  She says the New Hope team opened her eyes to see a business that she could do. Her life is now completely changed for her and her family (and we believe for future generations as well).     

1 thought on “New Hope

  1. Beth Fellows

    This project exemplifies good development principles. Not only is it helping women now but it is set up on a good foundation to continue indefinitely.

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