News - Growing Hope Globally

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A Lasting Impact Part 4: Kenya Bamba

June 29, 2021

The very first program funded by Growing Hope Globally was located in Bamba, Kenya. It began in 2001, implemented by World Renew and local partner Anglican Development Services - Pwani. Twenty years later, residents of Bamba are still seeing the lasting impact. The following are just a few examples: Christine Back in 2003, Christine was in desperate need of income, but she had no desire to get involved with ADS Pwani or any other organization that was assisting her community. Her best friend had convinced…

A Lasting Impact Part 3: Honduras Nueva Frontera

June 15, 2021

The Honduras Nueva Frontera program began in 2008 with local partner CASM. Over the years the program has served more than 10,000 people in more than 40 communities. It continues in its third phase as the Honduras Macuelizo program. Wilmer began participating in the program during the first year. He was an eager learner and quickly implemented everything that he was taught, becoming a master farmer. He was particularly inspired by what he learned about grafting, and became very skilled at it. He began grafting…

A Lasting Impact Part 2: Kenya Machackos

May 25, 2021

The Kenya Machackos program began in 2003 and continued until 2010 with World Renew and local partner NACODEV under the leadership of Pastor Cosmas Mwanzia. At the outset, the communities in this semi-arid region were dealing with chronic food and water shortages. Women were walking up to 20 miles for water. The program began with the community assessing their own resources and needs through participatory rural appraisal. They formed a plan and got to work. The farmers began meeting twice a month. They established…

A Lasting Impact Part 1: India Patharkhmah

May 10, 2021

At Growing Hope Globally, we know that the food security programs we support are effective catalysts of change. We regularly share updates about the immediate difference they are making in participants’ lives. However, we don’t often get to share what continues to happen years later – how those who have been impacted by these programs continue to grow and bring change to their communities. We recently caught up with participants from a few of our past programs. Over the next several weeks, we will be…

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Cereal Banks Prepare For The Lean Period

July 9, 2021

While it is still early in this new program, and though the Far North region of Cameroon is in the midst of the annual June-September lean period, local partner RELUFA’s past experience indicates that increasing the number of grain banks will strengthen the food security of participants. The goal is to have enough stored grain […]

Tragedy Turns To Hope

July 6, 2021

St. John’s Burry’s United Evangelical Protestant Church in Rochester, PA owns 11.4 acres of land next to their church and parsonage. In 2008, they decided to start a Growing Project and asked Tom Weil to farm the land. In 2010, tragedy struck when Weil’s 26-year-old son, Joey, was killed in a farming accident. Since that […]

Shocked By Her Own Success

June 28, 2021

In 2019, after years of poor farming results, Saweria experienced a complete crop failure because of a severe drought. In order to feed her three children, she says she resorted to stealing forest firewood to sell, risking hyena attacks and government sanctions. Less than a year into the start of this new program, she was […]

Community Solidarity During Pandemic

The success of Doña Guadalupe’s small family farm has made a big difference to her community. Even before the start of the pandemic, neighbors who were not yet engaged in the program took note of how Doña Guadalupe’s family worked together at practices like improving their soil with the droppings of their chickens and goats. […]

IF YOU TEACH A MAN TO FISH

June 24, 2021

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. I used the same proverb to introduce my December 2020 CropTalk feature article – If You Give a Man a Fish. In it, I detailed the selfless work of Kenton and […]

Iowa church sows seeds of hope through longtime partnership

June 10, 2021

Almost 20 years ago, some members of First Presbyterian Church in Conrad, Iowa, heard a presentation about a program in which U.S. farmers and churches team up to raise money to help subsistence farmers in various parts of the world. Arlyn Schipper, a member who also happens to be a farmer, “looked at me after the meeting […]

A Little Advice Goes A Long Way

June 3, 2021

At a recent gathering called a “sharing meeting,” a woman named Banyua related how her animal husbandry business experienced a complete turnaround with the help of a Household Advisor. These Advisors are elected by their communities to receive training on important topics like agriculture, income generation, savings groups, health, and family responsibilities. They go on […]

A Smaller World, A Bigger Family

May 26, 2021

Murray Johnson is pleased that his family’s fifth generation farm is able to benefit other farmers around the world. The Johnson family lives in Western Springs, IL, but also owns Hilltop Farm in Chillicothe, OH. They are members of First Congregational Church of Western Springs. The church has been a long- time supporter of Growing […]

Calamities Recede Thanks to Vegetable Farming

May 17, 2021

Out from under a pile of debt thanks to his successful vegetable farming operations, Mr. Khurkun is a happy man. As often happens with people of slender means, one calamity followed another in his life. A while back, he lost most of the land he farmed when the government built an irrigation canal. What was […]

Savings Groups Meet with Success

Last year Gladis attended – with skepticism – a meeting about Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) supported by local partner Fundación San Lucas. This year, after seeing what her SILC allowed her to accomplish, that skepticism is gone. “It has been a wonderful experience,” she says, “and there are lots of women and men […]