Ezzat's story is one of perseverance, community, and healing!

In 2014, during the Revolution in Egypt, Ezzat was injured in an attack in his community that killed nine people and injured 49 others. Ezzat was shot 3 times in the stomach.

But in the pain and the recovery, Ezzat never gave up. He worked harder - determined to provide for his wife and three kids. When he heard about TOLI, he took a microloan to buy a fridge and set up a small coffee shop.

And he's not alone in this journey. Across the street from his coffee shop is a factory, and the workers there know his story. They see Ezzat's hard work, and they make every effort to buy from him. They even created a clever punch card system so they can keep track of all the coffee and tea they drink throughout the day!

Because of Ezzat's hard work and the community around him, his shop has grown, he hired his brother to work for him, and he is now dreaming of building a bigger and better shop.

Believe it or not, people in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, are still recovering from the devastating hurricanes of 2020. Many homes are held together with metal sheets and tarps, and the economy continues to struggle.

But in all this, there’s HOPE.

This is Gianelly. At the age of only 17, she was the third person in Nicaragua to work with TOLI, but her first business never took off. Now at the age of 20, with two children, she’s starting again – selling pastries and soda. TOLI Social Worker, Orlando, is impressed by Gianelly’s hunger to learn: she’s been taking cooking classes to improve her pastries and reading Scripture. When Orlando visited her recently, she read the beginning of James 1 to him about trials, perseverance, and hope. Gianelly expressed her desire to persevere through hardships, to grow her businesses, and to truly know Christ.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” // James 1:2-4

"After I took TOLI's Business curriculum training,” Genet said, “everything changed.”

Genet, a TOLI client in Ethiopia, is a mother of five. When Hailu, a TOLI Social Worker, first met Genet last March, he saw that she was only selling a few kitchen items and was discouraged and confused. But Hailu sat at her shop, listened to her story, and encouraged her to come to TOLI Business Training.

At training, Genet learned about saving, selling, and separating her household and business budget. Now she said, “My business is BOOM.”

She moved her store to a famous marketplace and is confident and self-assured. She’s a leader in her village and recruits more people to join TOLI.

This March, Genet’s paying off the last installment of her TOLI microloan and plans to take another to continue growing her business. So much changed for her in one year, and we can’t wait to continue watching her businesses grow. 🎉

Hanan always had a dream to bake and sell bread to her community in Egypt. But she just didn’t know how to start.

One day at church, she heard about TOLI and she saw her opportunity. Soon she graduated from TOLI’s Business Basics Course, bought flour, cooking tools, and fresh natural butter with her TOLI microloan, and started selling ‘feteer’ — a sweet Egyptian flat bread — two times a week at the church.

After only two months, Hanan’s business has exploded. People from all around her community now come to her for bread. She’s hired her mother-in-law and sister-in-law to keep up with demand. And she’s not done! She plans to hire four more women to help her bake, has started making cookies, and is saving money to buy a bigger oven so that she can sell feteer in another community near her.

Hanan is living out her dream!

Xochil, a TOLI participant in Nicaragua, remembers having to leave her three young kids at home while she went to work as a housekeeper. Living in extreme poverty and feeling alone in her struggles, she felt like she couldn’t take care of her children, and when her oldest son started rebelling, she didn't know what to do. Desperate and sad, she went to the nearby church looking for help where she met TOLI Social Worker, Junior.

Junior says that God put Xochil in his path. Led by God, he shared the Gospel with her and told her about the TOLI program. He showed her that there is hope in Jesus and in his love for her, that He restores dignity, and that she’s not alone (Amen!).

She latched on to this hope and felt God's touch. She accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and even got baptized. Then she excelled through TOLI's program, quickly learning how to run a business of selling clothes and jewelry from her home. Now, she doesn't have to leave her children alone. She feels happy. And most importantly, she finds her hope and security in Jesus Christ, who restores all dignity in his perfect love.

What a beautiful story of redemption!

Richard in Uganda used a TOLI microloan to open a retail shop, selling sugar, flour, and snacks. He loves God, and it’s evident in the way he integrates God into every aspect of his life.

Richard reads the Bible everyday and dreams about being in the presence of God in heaven. He prays “that he will not conform to the pattern of the world, but that he will be transformed by the renewing of his mind” (Romans 12:2). He wants to be in the world but not be of the world, and he prays that his retail businesses will allow him to reach more people with the gospel.

Afaf, a TOLI client in Egypt, is creative and resilient. Because of Covid, she struggled with her first business of making custom shoes. There wasn't a need for her product, and she couldn't pay back the loan.

But TOLI Social Workers saw that she was capable of running a successful business. So when she came to them with a new idea to start a kindergarten, they supported her, and she was granted a second loan. With the loan, she bought a curriculum, teaching materials, craft supplies, and chairs for the kids. But the teaching space she was using was in disrepair, and she did not have enough students attending for her to make a profit.

Then Maged, TOLI’s Egypt Country Director, along with a donor stepped in because they too saw Afaf's creativity and desire to succeed. They helped her paint the walls bright colors that kids love and made the kindergarten a clean place for them to learn and thrive.

Now 30 children attend Afaf's kindergarten – they learn English, math, and art. Because of its success, she is almost done paying back her loans, she employs two other people, and makes a profit to support her own family.

Afaf never gave up. She kept persevering and people came alongside her to support her ambitions and dreams.

Jane took a TOLI microloan 4 months ago. She’s just starting out, but she started the perfect business for herself– a poultry farm. She’s hardworking and focused, and good at her job. She already raised and sold her first crop of chickens. And once she sells her second crop, she plans to use that money to build a house for more chickens.

Jane’s life is changing radically! She is supporting her family of 5– who in turn support her and celebrate her victories– and her business is growing. We are so excited to see Jane continue paying off her microloan and growing her farm.

In the first session of TOLI’s business training, clients are invited to dream — to dream of what they want to do with their life and how they can use their unique skills to start a thriving business. For many clients, this is the first time they've really thought about their dreams.

For Nadia, one TOLI client in Egypt, this exercise came easily. Because Nadia is a big dreamer, a go-getter, and a smart business woman.

Her dream started out small. She took a microloan 10 months ago to raise and sell chickens.

But then she realized that she could offer more services to her customers, by cleaning, defeathering and butchering chickens. This action sparked another idea to start seasoning the meat and hiring her son to deliver her products to people's homes.

And then she kept dreaming and growing. With money from those first chickens, she invested in a freezer and plastic wrap. She started selling and seasoning beef, and then she bought another freezer and filled it with ice-cream.

Now Nadia dreams about owning a huge store. And because of one microloan of only $318 for a few chickens, she has been able to invest, grow, and pursue her dream.