Joan, 33, runs a business making and selling clay wood stoves, which are common cooking devices in her community. She sees a lot of potential in the business and is taking steps to expand her activities. She will use her loan to buy spades, a wheelbarrow, hoes, and raw clay production materials. With more modern tools and materials, she will be able to make more stoves in less time, increasing her profits. Joan is married and a mother of two (ages 12 and 5). She… Read More
Loan Christine Funds for a Wood Cutter Machine
Christine, 47, makes a living producing and selling charcoal. She will invest the loan funds into a wood cutter machine and sacks so that she can expand her production. Christine is a widow single-handedly caring for four children (ages 14 to 22) and three siblings. Before setting up her own business, she worked for someone else as a porter. Now she feels that by working harder, she can take control of her own earnings. The loan will help her to expand her business and start… Read More
Help Margaret Diversify Her Food Sales Business
Margaret, 46, makes a living selling various food products. She will invest the loan money into her business to diversify her activities. She will buy cooking oil, onions, rice, salt, and other necessary ingredients. Margaret is a married mother of five. Three of her five children still go to school and will need some support for the years to come. She also often cares for her grandchild (pictured). Her loan will enable her to gradually grow her business and start saving money for the future. Margaret’s long-term… Read More
Help Anna Buy Two Cell Phones
Anna, 37 has two jobs: she is the village midwife, and she also runs a phone kiosk in her village. With the loan funds she will buy two mobile phones and pre-paid phone cards. This will help boost her business. Anna is a widow and a sole supporter of her five children. Her children are ages 9 to 20, and the two oldest have finished school. She also supports her elderly mother. In the mornings, she works at the village clinic and in the afternoons… Read More
Loan Anna Funds to Buy Charcoal in Bulk
Anna, 47, makes a living selling charcoal in her community. With the microloan, she will be able to buy larger quantities of charcoal at once and get a better price. This will increase her profits. Anna is married and a mother of eight children. Three of the youngest are still in school. She also supports a sibling and two grandchildren. She typically works very long days to support her family: 12-hour days from Monday to Saturday selling charcoal. This loan will enable Anna to improve… Read More
Help Beatrice Expand Her Linens Crafting Business
Beatrice, 43, makes a living making and selling tablecloths and other household linens in her community. Before setting up her business, she stayed at home, taking care of her children, not earning her own income. Beatrice will invest the loan funds into buying materials and fabric needed for her crafts. She is divorced and the sole provider for her three children. The loan will be a much-needed boost for her business and will enable her to take better care of her family. Her goal for… Read More
Empower Esther to Buy Charcoal in Bulk
Esther, 45, is in the business of selling charcoal. She will invest the loan funds into buying five sacks of charcoal to resell in her community. By buying bulk, she can save money and time and increase her profits. Esther is divorced and has four grown-up children who have already finished school. Her youngest is 16. She now takes care of her grandchild. Select your donation option:Deki (our microloan partner)Learn More About Donation Options The loan will help her to save for her long-term business… Read More
Loan Laura Funds to Start Selling Charcoal
Laura, 68, is setting up a charcoal retail business in South Sudan. A widow, her six children are grown and living on their own. She , however, supports three orphans who are under her care. Laura currently sells second-hand clothes but wants to switch to selling charcoal because it is more profitable. She will invest her microloan into 10 sacks of charcoal, which she will then sell in her community. Being able to buy the goods upfront and in bulk will increase her profits and… Read More
Laura Iteng: Our First Deki Entrepreneur
Laura (68) who is one of our first entrepreneurs to request a loan from our partner Deki is setting up her business in charcoal retail. Now a widow, she has raised her 6 children who are now making their own lives. She currently supports three orphans who are under her care. Until now Laura has been selling second hand clothes but she is changing trades because charcoal retail will be more profitable for her. She will invest the loan into 10 sacks of charcoal, which… Read More
Help Mary Buy New Furniture for Her Restaurant
Mary, 38, is among the first of Hope Ofiriha’s entrepreneurs from Magwi, South Sudan. She is a mother of three children (aged 10, 7, and 3) who runs a small restaurant. Mary needs an investment to expand her restaurant and take her business to the next level. With her loan, she will buy chairs, tables, and the various ingredients needed for cooking meals. The loan, combined with hard work, will make a big difference to her restaurant. Mary can start saving the extra income to… Read More
Happy Thanksgiving from Hope Ofiriha
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the United States and around the world! Hope Ofiriha wants to send a most sincere thank you to all of our supporters, donors, child sponsors, partners, volunteers, and everyone else playing a role in our success. Together, we are making a huge difference in the lives of South Sudanese women and children struggling to build a better future for themselves, their families, and their community. Enjoy this special day of Thanksgiving and remember that we could not do this work without… Read More
A Land Rover Is Heading to Omilling
Omilling is about 62 kilometers from Torit’s state capital. Accessing either is virtually impossible for villagers because there are no paved roads or public transportation to get there. A volunteer worked 50 hours in the past two weeks to ensure that a donated Land Rover is prepared for its new role in south Sudan. The Land Rover is cleaned, passed EU traffic test, and painted Green. It has left the Sweden port of Wallham on November 19 by EUKOR Car Carriers Inc, and is expected… Read More
Meeting in Omilling, South Sudan
Work on the Mairo Primary School is at a new stage! Last August, Astrid Rohde Wang and Lunde Arneberg from the Oslo School of Architecture & Design, and I visited Omilling to meet with the villagers. The Traditional Authority has approved the building plan and the community has already taken the ownership of the project. The two volunteers visited the donated plot and measured the site where the school will be built. The villagers gave a helping hand, and also assisted in searching for the red soil discovered… Read More
New Volunteers to Redesign Mairo Primary School
Work on the Mario Primary School—which will give hope to war orphans, former child soldiers, and other vulnerable children in Omilling village—is racing along! I recently met with Astrid Rohde Wang and Olav Lunde Arneberg, two students from The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, who have volunteered to redesign the school’s structure at village Standard. For several months nothing was happening on the project, keeping the door closed for hundreds of vulnerable children to ever receive an education. Behind the scenes, the Hope Ofiriha team was busy working to find out… Read More
Diversification & Dedication Make Us Special
Diversification and dedication is what makes Hope Ofiriha’s team so special. Our energetic team of two employees and 15 key volunteers is the driving force behind our ground-breaking success. The team is far from being homogeneous; its members come from a variety of backgrounds but share a common belief in eliminating poverty through literacy. At Hope Ofiriha, diversity is considered an advantage rather than an obstacle. Individuals put aside their differences to work harmoniously as a team. Age, race, education, and ethnicity hold no boundaries…. Read More
June 16 is a GlobalGiving Bonus Day
From 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 on Wednes, June 16, 2010 (Eastern time/GMT-4) ,the GlobalGiving Bonus Day will offer a 50 percent match for your donations. Additional cash bonuses of $1,000 each will be awarded to the top project that generates the largest amount of money and the top project to solicit the greatest number of unique donations. Please make a donation to Hope Ofirha through GlobalGiving by clicking here, on June 16.
GlobalGiving Global Open Challenge a Success!
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, Hope Ofiriha has been invited to stay on GlobalGiving website and is now officially a permanent member of the GlobalGiving Community. We look forward to your continued support and participation in GlobalGiving‘s online marketplace for giving. Without your support, we could not have won a spot on GlobalGiving’s site. The $4,093 raised for our Omilling HIV-AIDS Project came from 51 different donors during the December 2009 Global Open Challenge, just getting us over the required $4,000 in donations and 50 unique… Read More
