Hope Missions

Women Empowerment

Much of African family life depends upon women, as they often provide not only the primary care for the children but a significant portion of the family income as well. Hope Missions sees the women of a community as essential to the development of that community and by improving their access to education, health care and nutrition the whole community experiences the benefits. We therefore target women to be the beneficiaries of much the practical skills training we bring.

We seek to establish women’s groups in the villages in which we work and to provide them with core literacy and business skills to enable them to provide for their family’s future. We encourage them to share the skills they learn with other women from the community so that what is taught to just a few can have a significant impact on many. This helps unify the community and gives them a sense of ownership over their own development.

Hope Missions’ work with the women’s groups is very practical in nature. We have run several adult literacy courses and have found that women are more likely than men to attend. Those who successfully complete the course are then taken through a skills workshop to train them either to sew, cook, run a small business or other practical skills. For those who demonstrate a willingness to work together with Hope Missions, we seek to provide them with a small loan to enable them to put the skills they have learned into practice and start running their own businesses.

"Transforming communities through the implementation of programs which affect all areas of community life including: agriculture, education, economic empowerment, advocacy and discipleship, working through the local church and community leaders."