“My name is Desta* and I am 7 years old. My mother’s source of income is begging, and I begged with her for a long time. But when I joined Hope In View’s sponsorship program, I stopped begging and began school. Now I am in the second grade. My grades are good….”
That is just half the story. Desta’s mother, Meseret,* has been attending a small group every two weeks, as required for all the parents of the 108 children in our sponsorship program. There she has made friends-a valuable commodity in a harsh city-and is learning about God’s love, taking care of her own health, and parenting. She also is learning biblical principles of money management, beginning with saving. Each week she and the other members of the group bring 2 birr (10 cents) to contribute to the group’s savings fund. Together, all the parents have saved over 11,000 birr (more than $550, from which they are now starting to make loans to one another for the purpose of establishing small businesses. With the personal support and ongoing training she’s receiving, Meseret may someday be able to break permanently out of the trap of poverty and dependency in which she has been caught all of her life.
*Not their real names