Peace Gospel Blog

It sounds too good to be true: take a destitute woman struggling to keep her children fed, provide her with skills in the hand-craft trade, give her start-up supplies and a support network, all for $29, and transform her life in the process. But it is true, thanks to the very low cost of locally-available raw materials, and the fact that our instructors volunteer much of their time to this program. As a result of this effort and the generosity of our donors, we're seeing real life-change among these women. 

We launched this program two years ago out of a desire to get to the root of the poverty crisis in rural Nepal. The problem does not originate from a lack of desire among these women to work hard, rather simply it is the challenge of not possessing the skills or the capital needed to be entrepreneurial. We have found that there is no scarcity of talent or desire on the part of these women to call up their God-given abilities and creativity. They're proving themselves quite capable of producing very valuable, attractive and quality crafts. 

We're currently operating the program in the Ramechap, Makawanpur, Kaski, Ilam, Dhankuta, and Lalitpur districts. Hundreds of women have successfully completed our 15-day course, and many are already reaping the financial fruits of their new-found skills and small businesses. Take for example the story of Susmita. Age 26 and mother of 3, her husband has been in and out of seasonal agricultural labor and they've struggled to put food on the table. However, after being accepted into our program, Susmita was able to learn many craft-making skills during the session she attended in September 2010. Since then, she has found success in crafting beaded jewelry and candles. Now she and her family benefit from a steady flow of profits, enough to alleviate much of the pressure they were facing before. Through this journey, Susmita has found a new confidence in expressing her creativity in a way that's very profitable and fulfilling. 

Many are finding success in simply selling the products in their local villages, however a newer development has allowed for our graduates to sell to Kathmandu tradesmen whom our team has found are eager to buy their products. Many of these buyers are saying they've never found such unique and quality products as those being produced by our graduates and are asking for larger quantities to be delivered. Thus this newer component of the program is taking the vision a step further-- finding wholesale buyers for our graduates, which creates a channel through which they can find immediate demand for their crafts. 

Take Action:

[ sponsor a woman's craft business in Nepal for just $29 ]

[ sponsor an orphan in Nepal for just $24/mo. ] 

[ shop amazon.com through this link: 7% of your purchase will go toward our programs ]