WIDOW'S CRAFT BUSINESSES. For a gift of $90, or a share thereof, you can sponsor a widow in her pursuit to launch a new crafts business in The Philippines.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. —Psalm 68:5

Widows on the island of Cebu in the nation of The Philippines are especially at risk in an area already plagued by extreme poverty. However, through our craft business school we're offering hope for some of the most vulnerable of the population.

For just $90, we can train and equip a widow to start her own craft business. This includes all supplies and tools required to begin a profitable business. We are focusing on woven products such as placentas, baskets and brooms, as these are products that are in demand locally. Part of the training includes teaching the women how to manage profits in such a way that they're able to buy more supplies and continue their production.

Part of the program's design is for our native team to assist in distribution of sales to the market buyers so that the widows do not need to take on the responsibility of finding and maintaining buyer relationships as they start their business. This will provide for a steady and simplified sales process for the women, many of whom have young children to care for and cannot take the time to manage the sales process, which involves travel into the city.

Because we are assisting in connecting the widows directly to buyers as if they were the factory, they enjoy "fair trade" or "direct trade" types of profits. Usually women in this trade would work for a wage, but in our case we are setting them up as independent business owners. Thus their income potential is much greater than that of a wage earner. Recent graduates are earning $150/month in net profits. This is a very strong income for this part of the world, and is proving monumental in its ability to pull the women out of the poverty they find themselves in. [ recent blog entry | photos from our Philippines programs ]