Transformation is a Journey

(TANZANIA) Mary (not her real name), her husband, and their two children have lived in this chicken coop home for many years which they comfortably refer to as their home. On the left side, they are raising 200 laying chickens, and on the right side, the family has made a living area. Mary learned how to raise chickens from neighbors who raise broilers and layers, and she managed to start her small income generating project with 200 layers.

Mary (not her real name), her husband, and their two children have lived in this chicken coop home for many years which they comfortably refer to as their home. On the left side, they are raising 200 laying chickens, and on the right side, the family has made a living area. Mary learned how to raise chickens from neighbors who raise broilers and layers, and she managed to start her small income generating project with 200 layers.

Two years ago, Mary was one of the many people who responded with interest to a Mennonite Church (World Renew Partner) training about the benefits of working together in groups, saving together, and improving livelihoods through VSCG (village savings and credit groups). Mary joined one of the VSCGs that soon formed.

After a series of training workshops, members of VSCGs start to save together and then loan to each other to either start a small business, improve an existing one, or better still improve their living conditions. For Mary, her greatest need was building a house, a desire shared as well by her husband who is a casual worker (daily wage earner) in construction. Even with their joint income, there was no way they could save enough money to build a house for themselves.

But Mary learned how to save in her group, and within a year she was able to take a loan to buy cement bricks for their future house. She repaid the loan in six months and then took a second loan to buy more bricks. At this time, her husband also joined in, and with his earnings he was able to match the number of bricks Mary had bought. Within a few months, Mary’s dream started becoming a reality.

The family is excited about their “coming soon” new home, which is not far from where they live with their chickens. Mary’s plans are to keep working hard at saving so that they can complete the house, to increase the layers so that she gets more eggs to sell, and to keep saving with her group so that she can access bigger loans and share in the warmth of community and support that she finds in being a member of her group.

In this community, there are now many others who are motivated to building better houses as they have seen Mary’s family succeed.

We will visit Mary in another few months to check the progress of her house.

Prayer requests:

Pray for continued God’s guidance in our planning meetings and our work in Tanzania.
Pray for safety in the many travels planned for this year related to program evaluations, community training and visitations, World Renew meetings, etc.
Pray for peaceful co-existence between Muslims and Christians in Tanzania (events of the recent weeks and months indicate growing hostility between the two religions).

Improved livelihood is a step-by-step journey, and most often people realize God’s love and care along the way. God has chosen you and me to help His people along this journey. Thank you.

Thank you for the role that you play in this journey!