In one nation in sub-Saharan Africa, repeated terrorist attacks have created a refugee and internally displaced people crisis stretching across four countries.
At the resulting makeshift refugee camps, women have no opportunities to further their education or learn a trade that would help support their families during this trauma-filled interim.
When a Send Relief partner polled surrounding camps, a surprising number of women expressed interest in learning how to make soap so that they could sell it on the streets rather than begging for food.
Because their husbands could no longer rely on their farming skills after having been stripped of their land, women quickly became the breadwinners expected to keep food on the table and pay for their children’s school fees. So Send Relief supplied several camps in the region with lye, oil and other equipment to start a soap-making small business training open to the public.
The program was a success!
Participants wrote in to express their gratitude to donors who made this training possible:
“Before we learned how to make soap, we didn’t know how to do anything to help our families make money other than farm, but farming can have good and bad years. It doesn’t always meet the basic needs of our families. While we are thankful to have shelter and water at our camps, we still can’t farm the land, so all the young men of the village left to try to find work. When the Baptists asked us if we wanted to learn a trade, we decided to learn to make soap and sell it right from the camp. Now, the women and children who go into the city to beg for alms won’t have to and, some day if God returns us to our village, we can still help our families earn money. We are so thankful for the help these missionaries were able to get for us!”
These women have different lives today thanks to your generosity! If you would like to help even more people in need learn job skills that will help feed their families, click here now.
Published December 12, 2023