Teamwork. TOLI-style.

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. 

"Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." — MATTHEW 25: 23
 

---

---

3 inspiring stories fresh from the field

Over the past few weeks, we've met face to face with dozens of clients in Egypt and Kenya to hear about their lives, check on their progress, and pray together. We were thrilled at their successes and inspired by what God is doing in their lives. Here are three of our favorite stories...

---

Fayez Hanna: Overcoming disability and finding joy

Fayez was born with cerebral palsy in El Khom el Akhdar, Egypt. Because of his physical and mental disabilities he had never been able to have a job. Idle and unhappy, he was a burden to his already struggling family. Then, TOLI helped him start a small project with a microloan. He bought an inventory of candy and sweets, and decided to try to sell them from a cart outside of churches and schools. It worked. Fayez soon was working regularly and earning steady income. The extra money helped, but his family also noticed how much happier and more stable Fayez had become. He no longer fought with family and neighbors. He had purpose and began setting goals for himself. Fayez is now completely independent, earns his own income, and contributes to the needs of his widowed mom as well. Fayez's loan is now paid off, and he continues to be one the most popular guys on the block. 

---

Raooth Atta: Empowered to care for her family

When Raooth's husband was severely injured in an accident, he lost his ability to work and required full-time in-home care. With both of them now unemployed and housebound, their situation looked bleak. But soon Raooth found a creative solution using a TOLI microloan and a stock of fish. Because catfish are able to live for a long time in containers, she realized she can sell them right in front of her house, allowing her to continue to care for her husband as well as earn an income. She now has a bustling business offering her customers fresh catfish, which she cleans and filets as she sells them. With the income her catfish business is earning, she's now able to pay for her husband’s medical treatment and support her three young kids. 

---

Stella Mumbua: Head of household at age 25

Stella is determined to overcome her obstacles. At just 25, she's an orphan, a single mom to 8-year-old Hanson, and the guardian to her two elementary school-aged siblings. But with grit, charisma and her energetic personality, Stella is fighting hard for her family. We visited her tidy one-room apartment, where she was thrilled to show us her new clothing inventory, recently purchased with a TOLI loan. Her clothing business clientele is growing steadily. What's more, she is a member of 3 different savings groups, and meticulously records her weekly deposits in journals she keeps at her bedside (see picture above). Step by step, Stella is finding her purpose and taking charge of her life with determination, faith, and joy. 

---

WANT TO MEET OUR CLIENTS YOURSELF? 

Travel with us! There's no better way to understand how TOLI changes lives than by joining us on a Vision Trip. Visit our TOLI communities, meet and pray with clients, and get to know our partner ministries. Several trips are already in the works for 2019. Interested? Email Abigail McConnell for details. 

---

Other highlight from our March visits

EGYPT VISIT HIGHLIGHTS
— Our second site has surpassed 1000 loans. The village of Nazzlet Hanna has granted over 1000 microloans and is now in the process of expanding TOLI to nearby villages. 
— Heliopolis Church takes a key role. A devoted group of volunteers is helping to grow TOLI to multiple sites around Cairo through their church planting efforts. 
— Field staff meet and collaborate. Social workers and program directors from our Egypt sites met with TOLI leaders to share resources and training. 

KENYA VISIT HIGHLIGHTS
— Small business training. More than 20 women in the village of Mai-A-Ihii completed a 4-day small business course, equipping them with tools needed to develop and grow their businesses.
— TOLI launches in Chuka. We signed a contract with KCK Ministries in Chuka, and together will serve the community by bringing enterprise and discipleship to their community through savings groups. 

---

WANT MORE LIKE THIS?

Subscribe below to get TOLI news and updates straight in your inbox. (And don't worry, we won't share your info with anyone or clog your inbox, we promise.)

---

PS: We need you! Here are 3 ways you can jump in:

1. PRAY. The clients above are just three examples of thousands God has touched through TOLI — and it's all because of prayer. Please pray for TOLI clients, partner ministries and leadership. And pray about how you can be a part of what God is doing through this ministry. 

2. GIVE TO TOLI. We are reaching more people in more places than ever before, so we need your support. Please prayerfully consider a gift to TOLI to help us equip more people with life-changing microloans and the life-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. GIVE NOW.

3. REQUEST A SPEAKER. Are you in the Colorado Springs area and have a small group, Bible Study, missions committee or business group that would be interested in hearing more about our ministry? We'd love to share! CONTACT US to request a speaker.  

TOLI expands in North India

Poverty in the Midst of Scenic Beauty

The tea plantations are beautiful from a distance, but when a visitor draws close, the region's grinding poverty becomes clear. In the midst of such poverty, a different kind of beauty is emerging in the hopeful smiles of TOLI loan recipients...and even in such sights as pigs!  

A year ago, TOLI opened a new microloan project in the Duars region, in the foothills of the Himalayas of northeast India. TOLI started slowly, with just ten initial loans, to learn what kinds of businesses will succeed, to allow Ashish, the new project administrator, to learn his position, and to establish strong relationships.

With the support of Ashish, the original businesses are improving the owners' financial stability, recipients are repaying their loans, and the proceeds have been successfully rolling over into new loans for others.  We have identified three main business models as successful and, with an additional infusion of funding from TOLI, new recipients are now replicating those in three other nearby villages.  
 
One of the first recipients, Ajit, bought a female pig with his loan. She bore ten piglets, and though six of them died, four of them lived.  He sold two of them to repay the loan and to construct a small enclosure for his "pig farm."  Seven of the new loans are for pigs, and TOLI has increased the loan amount to cover a medical allowance.  Another four of the new loans - for goats - will follow the same model.

Mamta and her new sewing machine.

Another loan recipient, Mamta, invested in a sewing machine and now has a small shop where she sews and sells clothes to neighbors.  The loan was for 8500 Rupees (about $125), and she now makes about 1000 Rupees/week, a nice income that allows her to support her household.  Five of the new businesswomen are following this extremely successful model in their villages.  

Following a more complex business model, Daniel is running a shop where other villagers can now buy what they need. In the photo, his mother is shopkeeper.

We thank the Lord for TOLI's expansion in India...
 
We are grateful for the entrepreneurial spirit of men and women who are eager to provide a good living for their families!

We are especially grateful for our one-man staff, Ashish Subba.  He reports that the project is booming - and so is the paperwork!  Therefore, TOLI has equipped him with a laptop and printer so he can better organize the "office." In addition to training, managing and supporting the microloan projects, Ashish really serves as a pastor and evangelist through his work with the families. TOLI's holistic ministry is bringing the blessing of God to every aspect of life in these villages.
 

Please Join Us in Prayer

•  Pray God’s blessing on the new loan recipients and their families.

• Pray for Ashish and his ministry and outreach, especially as TOLI grows.

• Pray for provision of funds needed to expand projects to other villages in the tea plantation area.

• Thank God that TOLI has been able to wire funds into India and Egypt, and pray that this will continue, even though government restrictions are making the process more complicated.

• Pray for wisdom for the TOLI board, as they consider various new opportunities in Egypt as well as Albania.

Year-end report: 2016

With joy and thanks to the Lord for your support and partnership in this ministry, the Board of Directors of Touch of Love International (TOLI) invites you to celebrate with us the fruit of the ministry in 2016:

INDIA

The new TOLI project in Duars, an area of extreme poverty in northern India, is now well-established and the loans are rotating to new recipients. We thank God for the vital and truly holistic ministry of our TOLI Loan Project Administrator, Ashish, as he supports and guides current and potential loan recipients and shares with them also the good news of Jesus.

EGYPT
 
With partner Habitat for Humanity Egypt: The original projects in two villages of Upper Egypt (Nazlet Hanna and El Kom El Akhdar) continue to thrive and bring hope during very difficult economic times. Watch for news of five new villages opening!

With partner Heliopolis Evangelical Church: The new micro-loan project for widows and other women in Manshiet Nasser (often referred to as a "Garbage Village") opened with ten pilot loans in late 2015. The loans have already begun to rotate and bless more in that community.

PLEASE JOIN IN PRAYER

*  Pray for a fruitful visit of a team from First Presbyterian Church
   Colorado Springs that will visit some of the projects in Egypt early
   in January.
*  Pray for provision of resources to respond to requests for TOLI    
   projects in more villages of India and Egypt...and in other
   countries!
*  Pray for God's leading regarding a potential open door in Albania.

From Dependence to Dignity in Cairo's Garbage Village

In this best known of Cairo's "Garbage Villages," Manshiyat Nasser, the economy revolves around collecting and recycling the city's garbage.  With our partners and other Christian ministries, TOLI is working to transform the community in this desperately poor area.  We prefer to call it the "Garbage Recyclers' Village," both to make it clear that those who live here are not garbage themselves, and to highlight the significance of the work of these residents who make Cairo's percentage of recycling among the highest in the world.
 
Egypt's economy is struggling, and the greatest burden has fallen on those at the bottom of the social order.  Many fathers have found themselves unable to provide for their families; crushed by the shame, they have abandoned their wives and children and sought to dull their own pain.  Manshiyat Nasser has among the highest drug and alcohol addiction rates in the country.  Relief agencies and churches can provide only a fraction of what the abandoned families need; but relief is not the answer.  The mothers need a way to earn an income by which they can support their families while staying at home with the children.  They need hope and a future.
 
Receiving a micro-loan and business training provides just such hope.  Mothers like Rania*, signing for her loan in the photo above, are receiving this gift of empowerment through Touch of Love International's new project.  Rania's sister also took a TOLI loan, and together they rented an open-air space and bought large bags of garbage.  They sort and then re-sell all that can be recycled.  It is hard and nasty work, and when our TOLI team visited them, they did not want their picture taken.  But they are working, together and with their children; they have the dignity of supporting themselves; and they are progressing daily toward their dream to be able to rent an apartment where they can be safe and clean and dry, together with their five young children. 

---

Sponsor a loan today!

---

Meet a few TOLI entrepreneurs in Recyclers' Village...

Dina* bought scrap fabric and a weaving loom; she and partners produce rugs and many quilted products.

Mariam* bought discarded brooms and invested in a bristle-removing machine which her son is demonstrating. She then trims up the hard plastic base pieces which are valuable for recycling.

Samia* bought an industrial sewing machine and sews new garbage bags from the torn pieces of old ones.  When she sewed them by hand, she could only make 10 in a day. Now she can produce 50!

Heba* had an open room below her apartment; with her TOLI loan, she built display cases, bought a refrigerator, and stocked her small shop. She serves cold drinks and provides daily needs for her neighbors.

*not their real names

---

 God Provides Great Partners!

Nadia Henry, a Christian member of parliament and member of Masr el Gedida, a key evangelical church in Cairo, has formed a team to address various needs around Egypt.  Through Nadia's group, TOLI has partnered with a small but nationally recognized NGO called Talat Christina, whose leaders are all from the Manshiyat Nasser community. The photo shows their meeting room and key leaders, with Founder and Board President Emad Yassa and others. Together, we are building this new rotating micro-loan project for aspiring women.

The first round of applications, business plans and interviews in the fall of 2015 resulted in an initial group of ten loan recipients who signed their contracts and started their business initiatives in January.  Four more women have started businesses since that time.  By starting small, we strengthen our processes, and build a strong foundation for a long-term, self-sustaining micro-loan project that will bless the community in a multitude of ways.  
 
To date, all recipients are paying faithfully on their loans, and the revolving fund is just beginning to grow.  Our partners tell us that they have 750 families who are ready and in need of loans now!  Though the average loan is just $255, this would be an audacious goal, but we are on our way to transforming this community.  It is the Lord's work to take what is the "refuse of the world" and use us to do his work in the world he loves!  We serve the Original Recycler!

---

Please Join Us in Prayer...

• Give thanks for TOLI's wonderful partners and for the initial success of each business so far. Hold up especially Nadia and Hani from the church, and Ismat, Tamar, Nabil and others with the NGO.
 
• Ask God to provide the needed funds for the project to grow to provide more loans for other women and families.
 
• Scroll again through the pictures and pray God's blessing on each woman, her business, family and neighbors.
 
• Ask the Lord to draw all who are involved closer to himself through the ministry.
 
• Pray for stability in Egypt and that the economy would gain strength. And pray that the Recycler of all the world would receive the glory. 

Help TOLI honor mothers ...

 ... A GREAT WAY TO THANK YOUR OWN!
 

And what better way could there be to honor a mother than to empower her to build her own dignity, to model hard work for her children, and to provide for her family by starting a micro-business? 
 
Too often the burden of poverty falls on single mothers or women whose husbands are unable to work.  TOLI loans enable the women to earn an income and provide food, school supplies and medical care for their children, working at home where they are also caring for the children.
 
These brave and beautiful mothers are our heroes! We will tell you more about them and their businesses in future issues of the TOLI Newsletter.
 
For now, please join in prayer that the Lord will bless these mothers in Cairo, Egypt and in northern India.  And join in thanksgiving for the generosity of donors who have supported TOLI and made these loans possible.

Please consider honoring your own mother ~ or another great mother you know ~ and ALL mothers ~ with the gift of human dignity through TOLI micro-loans!

GIVE IN HONOR OF MOM