In the Republic of Moldova, PEER Servants partners with Invest-Credit, a local microfinance institution whose mission is to provide financial services with a commitment to excellence that will make a difference in client’s lives.
Moldova is considered the poorest country in Europe and has struggled both economically and politically since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Migration is one of the most severe problems Moldova faces, with estimates ranging from one-quarter to one-third of the working age population living abroad. According to the International Organization of Migration, one-third of these are believed to be living abroad illegally.
Though the country is blessed with fertile soils and bountiful harvests of fruits and vegetables, the strained economy has led many to seek higher income in other countries. The effects of migration are widespread. Families are torn apart; one or both parents will move abroad and leave their children with relatives. Communities have lost the invigorating energy of young adults. Invest-Credit, however, believes that the people of Moldova are its greatest resource, a more fertile ground for transformation and growth than even the rich soil.
With 58% of Moldovans living in rural areas, Invest-Credit developed a unique initiative, a mobile microfinance office, to reach individuals in rural areas who would not otherwise have access to microfinance services. Through the mobile office, Invest-Credit had been able to serve three villages. With the support of a Giving of Life grant, they would be able to expand outreach to more communities.
By Ride Nature
On September 16th, 2013 we will be sending a team to Southern India for 2 weeks with the hope and prayer that thousands of lives will be transformed through the power of Jesus Christ. We need your help to get Bibles, boards, and other supplies on this trip!
At Centre Children International Lifeline d’Haiti, the needs are many; among them is preparing the older children for life outside the orphanage walls. These young people need vocational and technical skills to assist them in finding a job once they are too old to live at Lifeline. A vocational camp is available for these children to learn valuable skills such as plumbing, electrical, driving, CPR, and more.
By Special Touch Ministry, Inc
Our Project…People with disabilities have the highest divorce and suicide rates in the country. Having a solid spiritual faith base and other believers to connect with can help in reducing these rates. Connecting people with disabilities to faith based support programs, churches, and other believers is critical.
But many people with disabilities find travel difficult. In the winter months some barely leave their homes. Other people are in group homes with no access to faith-based support. Many places of worship offer little access for those who are able to leave their homes desiring to meet with other believers.
Our ongoing project is to maintain and increase our online media to reach and impact a greater number of people with disabilities. Special Touch Ministry will provide strong online services that connect people with disabilities to churches, support programs and other believers, enlarging their network of support options.
Two years ago, Mission Waco began providing $112 loans for the extremely poor women in NE Haiti in the area we have been working in for over 27 years. Women must apply and commit to weekly meetings and the values of the program. Twenty-five women are accepted each term and to date 50 women have been involved successfully so far. After completing a business plan and learning certain life skills to help them achieve, other women in their group determine which projects and participants are the best choices. So far, 100% of the women have repaid their loans in full. This project will raise funds for another class of 25 women.
Broken Heart exists to meet the relational, spiritual, and physical needs of the broken-hearted living and working on the streets.
One of the ways we do this is with a weekly bible study and meal on the street called The Refuge, for those who might otherwise be overlooked or even rejected from typical churches.
In order to keep providing these resources we need your help! Our weekly Bible study consists of sharing the love of God by building relationships with our friends on the street, prayer, sharing meals and listening to their stories.
Each story makes a difference, and in order to change the route of their story to happiness we need your help. The cost to do this is $3,200. Broken Heart believes that if 200 people give $16, we can make an impact in every broken-hearted in the city of Los Angeles. Can YOU join us?
By Poet’s Glade
Poet’s Glade will launch a new project this summer, focusing on families that have adopted children with special needs. The financial and emotional stress associated with such adoptions can be overwhelming and exhausting. Our heart is to gift these families with a week of retreat and renewal here in Buena Vista, CO. We will host the entire family in a private mountain home here in BV for a week. We will provide kid sitting for mom and dad so they have some time to break away and spend time together. We will have activities planned for the entire family as desired throughout the week. Counseling for post adoption issues will also be provided on an as needed basis depending on the family’s individual needs. Karla Carroll is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 15 years expreience in adoption counseling. We are passionate about seeing families grow together and experience the compassionate grace of God. We look forward to seeing Adoptive Families thrive in the midst of what can be very challenging seasons of life.
By Media Associates International
Media Associates International (MAI) is conducting a three-year training program to develop national writers and launch a Christian publishing program in South Sudan, the world’s newest nation.
The training program is being carried out in partnership with Bishop Joseph Garang Atem and the Diocese of Renk of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS). We are responding to his request for help in developing Christian publishing to strengthen the nation’s church and society.
South Sudan received independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, following a 21-year civil war which cost 2 million lives and resulted in widespread destruction of infrastructure (the nation has only one paved road) and displacement of the population. The war pitted the mostly Christian and animist South against the Muslim fundamentalist regime in Khartoum in the north.
The challenge of developing self-sustaining Christian publishing in South Sudan will be great, but so is the need for it. Bishop Joseph sees locally authored Christian books as a key to “nation building,” a means of planting Christian values in society, developing a new generation of young readers, and for providing solid resources for Christian leadership and discipleship.
In a culture marked by death in recent years, newly equipped South Sudanese writers will offer words of life and hope to readers hungry for both.
By Touchstone Youth Resource Services, Inc.
Touchstone Youth Resource Services, Inc. is specifically seeking funding for expanding CiViL, our award-winning character education initiative for high school students. CiViL is comprised of two components - CiViL Groups and CiViL Service.
CiViL Groups provides students a safe, small-group environment where they can face, and work through, the often painful issues and pressing concerns that stand in the way of their growth and success. Students meet weekly with a trained mentor that guides them through heart-level discussions regarding the issues pertinent to their situation. CiViL Groups draws from real-life, personal events as a basis for teaching, rather than the traditional instruction derived simply from definitions of value-based words.
CiViL Service provides students the opportunity to make a difference in their community through monthly service-learning projects. CiViL Service has given some of the most disadvantaged students the life-changing experience of making a difference as far away as hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, and as close as their own neighborhoods. Students experience that they can make a difference in the lives of others in their community. As one student poignantly put it after a work project, “I finally feel like I’ve done something with my life that matters.”
By Rough Cut Men Ministries, Inc.
This project is aimed directly at turning the rising tide of suicide in the military. Of the over 350 suicides or suspected suicides of both active duty and reserve service members in 2012, only a small percentage have been reported to be related to PTSD or other combat related mental issues. We believe the larger percentage of these suicides stem from isolation. Many of these soldiers, after facing multiple deployments where every minute may be life or death, return home to marital issues, friendlessness, depression, financial hardship and a myriad of other challenges that all men face. We believe that if we can connect men, which is the principal focus of our ministry regardless of the audience, then we can defray the impact of a return to “Life as Usual” and consequently lower the number of suicides and attempted suicides among male service members and combat veterans.
Currently we have a need for an iMac, iPhone 5, and iPad. Our laptop is a MacBook dating from 2006, and has topped out being able to update software and for space.
Because we do not have the current OS, we cannot utilize IMessage, which allows texting from desktop or phone. We do significant text counseling, and to have it all work, it requires the current OS.
This means the iMac / iPhone 5 so we can keep our computer going, increase design options, and add the software that will get us current in design ability and communications. The phone is key so as to respond to text when not at the desk. With this system, the tests sync in real time. Critical in counseling.
The iPad is important for making presentations. All we can do not is hand a printed page and refer to our website.
By Miles of Help Through Christ
Since its inception as an organized nonprofit organization Miles of Help Through Christ has operated out of its founder’s residential home, which is a six bedroom home that is equally divided between his living space and the ministry space that serves as the organization’s office, storage, and operating facility.
Gus Martinez, the founder, has not minded the hundreds of volunteers and other personnel that have come and gone in the process. In some cases he has opened up his living space as additional storage or to allow displaced volunteers sleep overs.
The ministry itself has suffered limitations because of the residential address. Such as not being considered for the needed services of a pantry because of a residential address which organizations such as Second Harvest require a commercial address in order to assist. Valencia College will not permit students to complete community service hours or internships from a residential address and also require a commercial office.
Additionally, large corporations and philanthropist continue to pass us by because of the residential address. We are in need of a start up office in order to benefit from those opportunities that have passed us by in our desire to continue helping the homeless and needy.
Finally, because we do not have a central point we our senior volunteers working from the streets and their homes which limits their reach because of required additional driving.
