By discipleship, we mean specific, intentional teaching directly from the Word of God in the context of a small group where everyone feels safe, connected and cared for.

Why?
Many of Africa’s poor are evangelized, but not discipled. Perhaps this is because they are hard to reach or perhaps this is because the church may not want to spend its efforts on the poor who cannot financially give much back to the church. As a result, the poor often know about God, but they don’t know how to have a relationship with God.

How?
Discipleship is integrated into every aspect of the journey of an entrepreneur who is a part of Paradigm Shift’s program. Effective, Christ-centered discipleship is the focus and goal of each loan meeting and will have a special place in every gathering. Paradigm Shift models its staff and volunteers after Jesus’ example – each person being discipled and each person discipling others. For entrepreneurs, this will happen in their loan group’s weekly meeting, which will become similar to a small group of the local church. Discipleship will also naturally happen when entrepreneurs are paired with mentors outside of the loan group.

MICROCREDIT

By microcredit, we mean small, low-interest loans that are repayable over a six-month cycle. Funds may be used only for the purposes of income-generating activities. They are not to be used for consumption, school fees or emergency purposes.

Why?
Today, 3 billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day. Chronic unemployment is the norm and self employment is the most common answer to provide for one’s basic needs. For this reason, over 50 percent of adults living in the developing world are self-employed. But because most of the world’s poor have little or no collateral, and many are illiterate, managing a business and accessing affordable services and credit is a formidable challenge.

Commercial banks will not consider providing these sole proprietors with credit, so many of these entrepreneurs turn to moneylenders to access capital. Most local moneylenders charge exorbitant interest rates that typically range from 80-90 percent, which cripple the hope of the poor in gaining a substantial profit on any labor they provide or goods they produce.

How?
A Paradigm Shift-trained pair, including a business trainer and a mentor from a partner church, facilitate the Business Basics course for a small group of 15 entrepreneurs, teaching participants basic business and entrepreneurship skills, how microcredit works and life principles in following Jesus.

Each entrepreneur leaves the training with a simple business plan that outlines what they need for business expansion. If a plan is viable, an entrepreneur is given a small loan followed by mandatory weekly meetings in which mentors coach entrepreneurs in business development, receive loan repayments and disciple them on their journey of faith.

Loans are guaranteed through the use of social collateral, which means that every entrepreneur belongs
to a group of five other entrepreneurs. Each group member signs off on each other’s loans, guaranteeing
that if a payment is not made, the other members will cover it. Through the use of this kind of collateral,
the onus is on the group to ensure repayment rather than on the church.

One important part of microcredit is the recycling of loan dollars. Each loan is repaid within six months and the money is then recycled as another loan to another entrepreneur, thus multiplying the value of each dollar used in reducing poverty by creating multiple opportunities for economic growth.

Business training for entrepreneurs is absolutely critical to their success. A recent study conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in South Africa found that training is highly needed for the informal sector entrepreneurs. The study found:

When entrepreneurs from South African townships were asked in what areas they would like training, more than 50 percent indicated that they would like training in how to keep financial records. Over 40 percent of formal businesses indicated they wanted training in communication skills, marketing and their legal rights.

Philosophy Statement
When we talk about business training, we mean teaching entrepreneurs practical tools such as planning, accounting, finance, organization, costing, pricing and marketing. Each of these are transferable business skills that can be applied to any enterprise.

Why?
Entrepreneurs who apply for loan capital are doing so because they want to expand a business, and with expansion comes more responsibility, which they must be prepared for. Many microfinance institutions have found that if business owners are given capital but their skill level is not expanded to maximize their investment, they often end up poorer than when they started. With practical skills and a simple business plan, entrepreneurs can map out where they want to go and learn how to get there.

How?
Paradigm Shift’s business training program is highly experiential and small-group based. Training is a time for entrepreneurs to practice applying the tools to practical scenarios. Entrepreneurs must complete a 12-hour Business Basics course before being eligible to apply for a micro-loan. Each training will be conducted by a skilled team of volunteers from participating churches who have been trained to facilitate Paradigm Shift’s curriculum using experiential methodology. High school business students will have the opportunity to assist as table trainers.

With the decision to launch in South Africa, we wanted to post a short and very brief snapshot of the country. Like everything in life- it is a matter of perspective and Paradigm  Shift sees South Africa with tremendous potential especially through the integration of spiritual transformation and economic development.

South Africa has two economies, the formal economy, which is dominated by big corporations who attract large volumes of foreign direct investment into Africa, and the informal cash economy, which is dominated by small business traders. Paradigm Shift will be focusing its efforts on the informal economy where the needs are most pressing and where there are many opportunities to serve those in need.

Recently, South Africa’s government acknowledged an urgent need to accelerate efforts to tackle poverty and unemployment as it assessed the damage from a wave of deadly xenophobic attacks. The current events provide an excellent opportunity for the local church to significantly serve the working poor.
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In connection with the blog before that we have determined South Africa as Paradigm Shift’s pilot program country. We believe strongly in partnership and collaboration, so we have partnered not just with schools in South Africa that have a desire and heart for the poor, but also with Christian churches that span the denominational spectrum that support specific schools through the Association of Christian Schools International.

Our desire for each partner church is multi-faceted and we’ve written a few of the reasons below:

Why?
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