Requisite Response to Economic Disaster in Rural Bangladesh
Over the past 20 years, our partner in Bangladesh, Nelson, conducted successful SowHope-funded projects which have helped more than 10,000 women become microfinance entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, due to the long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall inflation rate in Bangladesh jumped to 7.56% since July of 2022 while food inflation rose to 9.74% over the […]
From Gravel to Gratitude
Women around the world have the worst jobs. In Sierra Leone, women work 8 hours a day and make ten cents an hour breaking stones into gravel. Most women are widows with children and the wages they earn barely give them and their children enough to survive day to day. Stone breaking is a dangerous […]
Two Tragedies & A Treasure
In early June, Mary Dailey Brown, CEO of SowHope, and Dr. Sylivia Juta visited three partners from different areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Reports of tragedy from the first two partners were shocking. SowHope’s first project in the DRC was a birthing center that has served thousands of women. It has […]
New Partners in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has been under serious economic hardships and hyperinflation for over a decade, reaching 80 million percent month-to-month at the height of it in 2008. This has led to the collapse of many industries and rendered the Zimbabwe currency useless. The country is now recovering from this economic catastrophe and is ripe for investments. Recently […]
Updates in South Sudan
In 2021, extreme floods displaced an estimated 386,000 people in South Sudan. Some of these Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were resettled by the government in a town near one of our project leaders, Rhoda. “We heard the outcry from the IDP women,” says Rhoda, “They had virtually no way of making money and were using […]
Report from Kenya
Below is a narrative report from our partner in Kenya, Josephine. These challenges are very common and some of the main reasons that Josephine has given her life to spread these messages and empower women around the whole country of Kenya. Her English is not perfect and the text has only been lightly edited. The […]
Supermarket Success
Our partner Rhoda in South Sudan dreamt for years to open a local supermarket to supply needed items purchased at wholesale prices from the 200 local women farmers in the women’s cooperative she began a few years ago. Last summer, SowHope funded the supermarket, providing easy access to essential items for 5,000 people who live […]
Terrorism Hits Close to Home in Nigeria
Boko Haram, a terrorist organization in northeastern Nigeria, continues to terrorize in many areas where our Nigerian partner, Sarah, oversees more than 25 SowHope projects empowering women. Recently, Sarah’s cousin and his friend were killed during a brutal attack in her parents’ hometown. During the attack, people from the town ran for their lives, including […]
From Stonecutter to Seamstress
All Aruna, from India, had ever known was stonecutting. As her family’s traditional work, it was the only skill she had for earning money, until she signed up for the SowHope-funded tailoring project in her village. At 29, Aruna is a wife and the mother of three children. She would accompany her husband whenever there […]
Emergency Support for Bangladesh
The Tea Garden areas of Bangladesh are some of the poorest regions in the country where local people obtain day labor jobs at about $1/ day. When COVID-19 hit, the tea companies banned outsiders from coming in and stopped hiring local people to work. This situation has caused an immediate economic crisis where people cannot […]