Bright light on a dark canvas

NOTE: This post originally appeared on First Pres Blog (http://first-pres.org/first-pres-blog/a-touch-of-love/)

Nemeh, an older lady wearing a black head scarf, led us down below street level to show us her home. Light leaked in from above, and we could see for ourselves what she was explaining to us in Arabic: when it rains, the guttered hallway leading to her room becomes a river of sewage.

And her room—her home—isn’t much more than a hallway itself. It's just big enough for a bed and an old fridge, and a few inches to walk around them. So a few of us huddled in the sewage path hallway to peer in and listen to her story, occasionally pressing ourselves against the wall to let little kids and mothers come and go into the darkness.

This is Garbage City. Almost 100,000 people live in this area of Cairo, nearly all of them Christians. Their job is to collect, sort and recycle all the trash produced by this city of 20 million people. Their entire economy and rhythm of life is centered on garbage and it is everywhere: below your feet, down each alley and on the first floor of nearly every tall brick tenement structure that make up this maze-like neighborhood. It’s even overhead: massive bundles of trash are hoisted high on pulley systems on their journey into and out of Garbage City.

RESTORING DIGNITY AND HOPE

We came here because Garbage City is a project site for Touch of Love International, a nonprofit founded and run by Emad "Eddie" Yassa (First Pres covenant partner and Egypt team leader) that restores dignity and hope to vulnerable people through microloans.

Nemeh, we learned, is on the list for a small loan to purchase two young goats. She even proudly showed us the tiny pen she’d created in the side of the gutter to house them at night. These goats promise a source of income through milk and meat that will renew itself year after year. But it was a hard conversation. Nemeh is waiting, but feels worried she’s running out of time—she’s diabetic, losing eyesight and plagued with Hepatitis C.

We visited other Touch of Love projects as well, success stories that are bringing light and hope into a what seems like a very dark place. Hanan, a single mom with two school-age boys, received a loan last year to open a small shop. We showed up at her store today, where she showed us her now-thriving business. She gave thanks to God that she’s been able to repay the loan and is making plans to expand her store. She asked us to pray for her sons, who are preparing to take their final exams.

Saoud and her family in the courtyard where they sort trash.

Another young mom, Souad, received a loan from TOL last March to purchase a trash contract—a supply of garbage to process and sell to recyclers. When Emad and the team visited her last spring, she was desperate. Her husband had left her, she had several very young children to care for and no source of income.

BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT

Today Souad, although surrounded by garbage and making a living in incredibly rough conditions, is providing for her children. Her income is increasing and she was recently able to purchase pigs to help process the biodegradable trash. Her husband has even returned. As we prayed with this young family in a courtyard full of trash, and as I saw the radiant light that seemed to shine from inside this hopeful young woman, I felt like the Sermon on the Mount had come to life.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth...

There is a richness about Souad that I will likely never know. And while her people are called the Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people," they are anything but worthless. They have precisely the same value, same hope, same need for Christ's love as I do. Sometimes God uses a dark canvas to show off His light most brilliantly.

*Update: Since we arrived home, Nemeh's loan was approved and she’ll be receiving her two goats soon. Thanks be to God!

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. 

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Sponsor a loan today!

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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

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 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!

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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

Daniel's new shop is buzzing

Doars, India — Daniel Ekka’s shop business is running well. His family members help him diligently in his work. His shop is set up in one of the best spots in the neighbourhood, hence many customers are easily attracted. His shop is growing and as the result of that his family’s financial stability has also been improved. Daniel’s entire family express thankfulness towards God and Touch Of Love for this project.

(submitted by India staffer Ashish)

Mamta gives thanks for her growing business

Duars, India — Mamta Xalxo’s project was a sewing machine. Initially she started her tailoring business at her house. And when the customers started to grow she took a room by the shop of her brother, Daniel Ekka. She has a lot of customers coming to her tailoring shop. God has blessed her so much that sometimes it’s hard for her to handle the work alone. Recently her husband passed away due to sickness. Now she has a son and a daughter to take care of and this project is her only source of income. She’s blessed to have this project.

(submitted by India staffer Ashish)

From one piglet to a whole pigpen

Duars, Indai — Ajit Ekka’s project was a piglet which he raised till it grew to become a huge pig. The pig has already given birth twice. The first time he sold all the piglets and returned the loan. With the rest of the profit he planned to grow the project by building a pigpen. He has started the work and says thanks to the project. He now has many pigs and a pigpen which is still under construction.

Construction on Ajit's new pigpen.

(submitted by India staffer Ashish)