So, I´ve heard about how open the people are in Peru from friends that have done short-term missions trips here, but never experienced it firsthand. On Sunday, Janelle and I went to our first Peruvian church and were shocked at the crowds trying to get a seat for the next service. This church, Biblica Emmanuel Inglesia, has 7 services every Sunday with close to 700 people filling it to capacity! The fire marshall has repeatedly asked the church to create some sort of system to ensure they meet the fire regulations… And that is where Janelle found ourselves on Sunday. (See photo to the left – this is our friend Marco and his son Joshua waiting in long lines just to get IN to church!)
Read the full post…
Last week we had the privilege of meeting with two entrepreneurs and touring their businesses. We were able to learn a lot about the lives of entrepreneurs in this city and some of the struggles they face.
The first entrepreneur lives only three blocks from Casa Victoria. About 14 years ago, he gathered the supplies to rig up several machines which together produce ice cream bars. Today, he owns a house where approximately 30 members of his family live. The ice cream operation is in the basement of his house and every day, the women in the family head to the streets to sell the ice cream. Slowly but surely he has built the business to what it is today. Because he has no access to credit with which he could expand his business, his family still lives in one house and struggles to have money for their basic needs such as clothing and food.
Walking across Plaza Grande in Quito, I felt a small tug on my sleeve. There stood a dirty boy about 7 years old, pointing to my shoes. He was one of the infamous shoe-shine boys who constantly beg tourists for a few cents to shine their shoes. With a pitiful expression, he pointed to his stomach, denoting that he was hungry.
Read the full post…
The city council recently called Casa Victoria and asked that someone from the house attend a meeting in an hour. During that meeting, the city announced that they would be conducting a competition and subsequently providing grants to groups who could put together viable proposals of how they could help the poor areas of the city.
Read the full post…
A large part of this research trip is to study and understand how microfinance is currently in operation in these different cultures and countries. We recently met with the General Manager for one of the largest microfinance groups in Ecuador- he squeezed Paradigm Shift in between meeting with the morning appointment UN and lunch with USAID. Along with growing this operation from 4,000 clients to 65,000 in five years, he is also the head of all the financial institutions in Ecuador… So talk about meeting the right person!
Read the full post…
