DennisinMalawi.com

This man from my church, Dennis, is currently on a 6 week stint to Malawi, Africa to work with an organization called Opportunity International. I guess they have a bank there that helps the poorest people in the region. The bank was founded by a group of Christians and it's not for profit. I don't know much about it at all, but I do know that Dennis took his tenure time that he earned from work to spend serving others. He went with our youth back in March to Romania on that missions trip to help us out and he is such an awesome, integrable man of Godly character. Anyway, I was just reading his site dennisinmalawi.com and was touched by some of the stories of the locals there that he has met. So I wanted to share a bit with you.

Working with Opportunity International Bank of Malawi
Where do I start?After arriving at OIBM I have spent the last 3 days getting to know the staff, their clients and their vision for the future. They are looking for me to help them develop a marketing and brand strategy for the bank to allow them to plan the next 6 to 24 months advertisements. So the past few days have been mostly information gathering for me. I have met 10 of their micro lending clients in the market here in the city and in the village about 25 miles in the bush. My experiences are one of such sorrow and yet hope. It’s best to share this with you in just a few stories of some amazing women.

Agnes- This woman started out making donuts in her kitchen and having two boys sell them in the market. She also did hairdressing in her home. When the hairdressing began to expand, she wanted to open a shop so here home would be less noisy. First she rented a space in a building and later she bought her own little shop outside of the city centre. Her hair saloon was a big success and she started to offer various goods in her shop to allow the locals to buy things from her instead of having to go into town. This later developed into a small convenience store which later expanded into a small grocery store offering food, soap, cold drinks and other household goods. Not finished yet, Agnes returned to her cooking roots by opening a restaurant near her shop where she serves food from 11:30 till 6pm. This is managed by Irene while Agnes works behind the counter of the store when she is not cutting hair.She came to OIBM when the bank she got her first loan, turned her down for her second. She is motivated by her responsibility to the poor in her country and as she says it “looking for something nicer than I have”. She employs 18 people in her three shops and has bought land nearby which she hopes to open an even bigger grocery store someday.

Mrs. Chunda – This miraculous woman started out carrying baked good on her head to the market everyday. One day she asked the government for the piece of land adjacent to the main bus station which they were using as a dump site. She cleaned it up and set up her own restaurant. She now served people from 10am – 6pm cooking on open fires and serving a simple choice of meat or chicken with maze or rice. The price is about $1 and the customers sit under a plywood roof on tables and chairs. She says she has served over 17,000 per day and hopes to someday put down a cement floor rather then the dirt one and get electricity and a refrigerator to serve cold drinks. She has 7 of her own children and has taken in 18 others from her brothers and sister who have died. Their ages range from 21 to 3 years old. She heard about OIBM from a friend and decided to become a customer and then a client to expand her business. She has 10 people working for her cooking, serving and washing up.

The village meeting – I sat with over 60 men, women and their children this morning as a member of OIMB gave them a presentation under the meeting tree. Brown told them of the importance of working together to make their business grow and to help each other if they were to continue to be successful. These people are borrowing between $10 and $15 in order to buy more food or soap to sell in the small stall under some cardboard or in their small hut. Some used the money to buy galvanized steel to make water pails or wood to make chairs and beds there in the village. These people greeted me and my colleagues from OIBM with songs and smiles. The women of Malawi love to sing and so quite often when they are together the just break out in song. The village chief was there to monitor the presentation and to participate. I was introduced as a man from Britain coming to help them. For my part I took lots of pictures which I am hoping to get uploaded into the site soon. Email and other forms of communication can be quite spotty. As I took their pictures I would show them the results on the TFT screen and they were all amazed. For some this may have been one of the first times they had their picture taken.But what really impressed me was their faith in Jesus. It stared this morning at 7:15 at the OIBM satellite branch which opened in Oct 2004. (These were 3 containers they crafted together and created an amazing place with air conditioning, and ATM machine and a garden to have their customers sit outside in comfort.) The whole staff met for morning devotionals before opening the bank at 8. When we went to the village we also opened and closed with prayer and sang songs of praise. These people have so very little yet they have the love of God and the feeling that the Holy Spirit is with them. The children are full of smiles and joy. I was saddened when I realized that one out of every 4 would not make it to their 5th birthday. Yet through this all they were amazing friendly to me and I never felt threatened in any way. This was the same the day before when I walk around the market where 10,000 people work and try to survive in this very poor country.You get the sense of how poor when all day long you see people walking barefoot, picking up wood along the road, trying to sell a fish or a pigeon they just caught. People selling all sorts of things that they hope will get them some money. Yet there does not feel like there is hopelessness in the air or with the people. They want to work, to earn a living so they can get shoes or a better roof on their house or just to have some other clothes to wear. And they all feel a sense of obligation to each other. They know they are a poor country but they are also looking for ways get out of this poverty.