How TOLI clients are joining forces to kickstart local economies
This year has thrown us all a curveball. But TOLI clients in Nicaragua are rising to the challenge—together.
Last month our partners in Puerto Cabezas called a 'family meeting' to rally TOLI clients and brainstorm how to get back to work, even though COVID had crippled the economy in this small coastal town. While their businesses stayed shut, they knew they had to think creatively to get business moving again. But how?
Teamwork.
Local TOLI leaders and clients crafted a plan: Form neighborhood-based small groups to work together on simple, short-term microenterprises.
Using seed money from our COVID-19 Relief Fund, each team of 10 plans a four-week business project. Initial profit goes to repaying the seed money and expenses; subsequent profit gets split between group members.
The first of these 'Entrepreneurship Teams' set up a weekend soup sale in town, using a $150 loan from TOLI for supplies, then selling tickets to ensure a customer base. Early results are promising, proving the concept as well as turning a modest profit. The second sale is scheduled for this weekend.
But the payoff is so much more than profit. These teams will be a permanent feature of the TOLI program here, providing safe communities of social support, bible study, discipleship, leadership development, and business training long after the group business projects are over.
Getting people organized and mobilized in this context is a challenge, our social worker Gordon 'Junior' Mitchell tells us. But it's worth it.
"It's actually really tiring," he says, "but it’s a blessing, because ... you’re educating people about business, you’re educating them about leadership, you're teaching them how to be part of a team."
Six teams are now in development, and business project ideas range from selling fast food to kitchenwares. Each group has a chosen leader, and members divide duties according to their abilities and interests.
At a time when many feel isolated and powerless, we're inspired by how the TOLI family in Nicaragua is joining forces and recognizing the rich assets God has given them: each other.
