September 24, 2008

This morning we had the opportunity to go and visit the Urban Ministry office and learn about what they do and ask them questions about what that looks like! So here is a little bit about what I learned: Urban Ministries was started by CRWRC but now it is mostly on its own and it is a partner organization of CRWRC. Their goals are to provide micro loans to people looking to start a business or shop. Once a loan has been given Urban Ministry seeks to continue skills training as well as provide awareness about health issues, literacy and Christian value formation.
People looking for help from Urban Ministry would first get together with about 5-10 other interested people and form a group. This group would then apply to Urban Ministry for support. Urban would interview and evaluate the group to be sure they fit their criteria then they would continue with the loans process. The expectation is that each group would meet at least twice a month to support each other and possibly do some skills training. Urban Ministry would be in contact with each group to share with them learning opportunities, to support them and the keep track of their loan repayment.

After learning about this ministry in its office, they took us to meet a group of women who have benefited from the Urban Ministry Program. These women formed a group and connected with Urban about eleven years ago. I spoke with a lady named Cecilia who has a market stall that sells rice, wheat and many other things that I totally don’t recognize. She told me that because of the help from Urban she was able to grow here stall to what it is today. She also told me that she has 7 children and through her small business she is able to help care for her family. There were about 5 other women with stalls in this same area and they were all very excited to talk to us about how Urban had helped them. They were also very gracious about letting us take some pictures and they loved seeing the pictures on the camera afterwards!!


Natalie,
-Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life-
King Solomon (Prov. 4:23)