Sudan & South Sudan

Our program director, Suzanne Schultz Middleton, is currently in South Sudan, and last week she e-mailed this photo of a child in a cattle camp near Malakal, in Upper Nile State.

In this area of South Sudan, families traditionally keep a permanent home in a small village-like setting and grow some crops nearby. Cattle are typically relegated to the plains and kept in cattle camps. In order to protect the animals from predators and raiders, herders and their families band together. These rough, temporary settlements are full of dust, cattle, dung, and insects. But they are not also without hope and joy.

Five Talents and its local partners, including the Diocese of Malakal, are overseeing the development of savings and financial literacy groups made up of women and men who live in or near the cattle camps.

Children, like this little girl, benefit when moms and dads are taught to read, write and count. Eventually, many of these adults graduate to savings groups, where they learn to manage money and develop a micro-enterprise that can help them provide for their family. One cattle camp has even seen the formation of a small church!

This photo of a gentleman carrying his savings group's blue "locked box" was featured in our brand new infographic, which we posted to the blog last week. The shot was taken by David Middleton for Five Talents shortly after a savings group wrapped up one of its regular meetings near a market in Lietnhom, South Sudan.

According to a recent survey of our savings group members in the village, 44 percent are involved in trade. Another 30 percent have a farming business. Savings groups like this one enable micro-entrepreneurs to safely build up cash reserves, access microloan capital, and receive training in basic business skills, like marketing and accounting.

Whether you are slinging coffee at the corner Starbucks or pouring hot tea under a tree in South Sudan, good customer service is crucial to success.

Teresa, a 45-year-old mother of five in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan, learned this principle while taking a leadership course with one of our partners in South Sudan, World Concern.

Teresa runs a tea business in the shade of a tree near the Eastern Bank Market. Beyond building a loyal customer base through good service, she's also fulfilling her calling as a Christian by showing love and compassion for the people that God brings to her business.

Teresa first launched her tea shop with the help of a loan of 150 South Sudanese Pounds, or about US $50. Every customer who stops by gets not only a good cup of tea, but also a reminder that they are loved by God.

In one case, Teresa befriended a woman named Akec. Like many relationships, theirs started with some small talk and a few funny stories. Then, one day, Teresa invited Akec to attend a church event with her.

The Rev. Peter Garang, an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church of Sudan and an Economic Development Officer with World Concern, recalled what happened next.

"Mrs. Akec got convicted from a speaker who was preaching on God's love, and, as the result, she accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior," said Peter. "A few weeks later, she got baptized with her four children in Eastern Bank Parish. Five months later, one of her daughters became a Sunday School teacher in the Parish."

Around the same time, Teresa also began reaching out to a woman nicknamed "Anger" who was known in the community to have a struggle with alcoholism. This woman's behavior in the market was becoming a public spectacle. This broke Teresa's heart, so she began to speak with "Anger" about her problems.

Over time, the woman warmed to Teresa's advice and started attending church with her. Now, she and her five children have been baptized, and others in the community are marveling at her transformation.

Of course, besides reaching out to others – and serving tea – Teresa has needs of her own. She hopes to expand her business in 2013, and at the end of her conversation with Peter she offered up this prayer, which we want to share with you so that we can all join together in praying for Teresa and the women she has touched and will continue to touch through her business.

"May the Lord our shepherd who sees people's needs," she prayed, "bless my small business to grow well in the Eastern Bank area so that I can become a living example for my fellow workers and teach them to start their own businesses in our respective counties in Western Bahr el Ghazal State, South Sudan."

Perhaps you already have 5 books on your must-read list for 2013. Or maybe you have more like 50. Either way, we hope you'll read at least a couple of the following picks over the next 12 months. We're recommending titles that approach poverty from a variety of perspectives. Whether you are a development specialist or someone who simply loves a good story, we have you covered.

The Dragon's Gift
If you're interested in Africa and would like to learn more about the aid and investments that are flowing into the continent, then Deborah Brautigam's The Dragon's Gift is a must-read. The author has spent decades studying China's investment and aid packages to African governments. Besides offering a timely and ground-breaking analysis of China's activity on the continent, Brautigam also provides context so that we can understand how China's approach to aid and investment differs from that of the United States and other Western nations. For a great review of the book, click here.

Where China Meets India
If you'd like to learn more about one of the countries where Five Talents works, we recommend this book about Myanmar (Burma). Last year, the Burmese government made news by launching a series of reforms, including a loosening of media controls and an embrace of democratic elections. What was once one of the most closed societies in the world was suddenly opening its doors to the West and inviting investment to help spur development. Where China Meets India, by Thant Myint-U, is an engrossing travelogue that shows just how fast Myanmar is changing.

A Free Man
If you want to read a profile of an individual who is struggling to escape a world of poverty, look no further than Aman Sethi's A Free Man. The author, a correspondent for The Hindu, focuses his non-fiction narrative on the life of a homeless day-laborer in Delhi, India. The fast-paced story takes the reader into a world that few of us in the West have ever seen. Esther Duflo, co-author of Poor Economics (another great book that we have written about), calls Sethi's book "a beautiful work of journalism," adding: "What starts as classic ethnography becomes a gripping story, and ends as a homage to a lost friend."

Through the Eye of a Needle
If you enjoy history and would like to learn more about the early church and Christians' view of wealth and poverty, read Peter Brown's acclaimed Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD. Brown, a respected historian, excels at evoking the life of the ancients through colorful prose and through profound readings of saints like Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome. As Christianity Today puts it, Brown lets us "hear the heartbeat of late Roman and early Christian civilization."

When Helping Hurts
If you'd like to learn about how the Christian church has helped – and hurt – the cause of the impoverished around the world, then pick up Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert's When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself. The book was re-released in 2012 with a new foreword and two new chapters. Readers interested in learning more about the philosophy that informs Five Talents' approach to micro-enterprise development will find this book particularly helpful.

Last week, we shared the story of Adon (middle), a micro-entrepreneur in Kuajok, South Sudan who adds value to the ground nuts she grows by roasting them, grinding them up and turning them into paste. Adon is putting her children through school by selling this peanut paste, and she has become a model for others in her savings and loan group.

Here, Adon is attending one of the group meetings in Kuajok.

When Five Talents Program Director Suzanne Schultz Middleton spent some time with Adon earlier this year, she came away feeling delighted about her story.

"When I see someone who is doing tailoring in the market, who is adding value [like Adon], it makes me smile," said Suzanne. "They see the value in what God has given them. And they're doing something with their own hands, as opposed to getting second-hand clothes from Uganda or food from Kenya and just changing the location of that good. There's nothing wrong with those businesses. But, to me, there's just something really hopeful about working hard and making something from what you have."

If you were to travel with one of us on a program visit, we would inevitably take you to a local marketplace to meet a few of our micro-entrepreneurs. As we walked past market stands, we'd tick off the types of products being sold: bananas, potatoes, second-hand clothing, cups of tea.

Many micro-entrepreneurs sell products that have been purchased in bulk or grown on their own plot of land. Some, though, take an existing product – or a discarded one – and refashion it in some way in order to add value.

We've written about Reech, a micro-entrepreneur in Wau, South Sudan who takes old mosquito nets and turns them into rope.

We've shown you the children's sweaters that Marta sews in Peru.

During Program Director Suzanne Schultz Middleton's last trip to South Sudan, she met Adon (R), a woman in a Five Talents savings and loan group who was selling peanut paste at a market in Kuajok.

"In South Sudan, a lot of people are bringing goods in. That's how they add value -- just by transporting things. But this woman had cultivated some ground nuts, what we call peanuts, and she'd turned them into paste (peanut butter) and sold it," said Suzanne (L). "Through her own work she had added value."

The end of the year is fast approaching. But the road out of poverty is long and hard.

In order to continue meeting our commitments to micro-entrepreneurs in places like Bolivia, South Sudan and Myanmar, Five Talents needs your support.

For an example of how your generosity can change a whole community, look no further than this project in Malakal, South Sudan, where over 10,000 participants have been given what is often their first opportunity to become literate and numerate.

For stories of individual lives transformed, look no further than those of Rosma in the Philippines, Narcisa in Peru, and Roda in Sudan.

Here are five ways you can make a tax-deductible donation and help us keep these women – and tens of thousands of others – on the road out of poverty:

• Donate through our eGift Catalog. Click here to select a program/project from South Sudan, Indonesia, Peru or Myanmar. Upon completing the transaction, you will be invited to send either 5 or 10 e-cards informing loved ones that a gift has been made in their honor.
• Give through PayPal. If you are using a smart phone or tablet, you can easily donate to Five Talents by using the PayPal button on our Ways to Donate page. Or just click here. The process is seamless if you have already created a PayPal account.

Partners:

• World Concern
• The Mothers’ Union
• The Episcopal Church of Sudan, Diocese of Wau

Program Type and Services:

• “Savings-Led”

The program offers microcredit through Financial Services Associations (FSAs) and Accumulated Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs). ASCA groups determine the terms for the loans from their savings, rates of interest, length and any fees or penalties, making them extremely able to meet local demand and to react to local conditions quickly.

Training focus:

• Adult literacy and education
• Business development training: planning, marketing, pricing
• Social capital development among entrepreneurs
• Biblical values in the marketplace training
• Household budgeting and saving

The Community

This under-served area along the border of South Sudan and Sudan contains a population of more than 500,000 people.  With the independence of South Sudan, there is an expectation of enormous economic growth because the region is endowed with great natural resources. There is also a great opportunity for the local population to engage in diverse business opportunities.

At the same time, the region still faces plenty of risks despite the formal separation of Sudan and South Sudan. Infrequent fighting continues in some disputed border areas. Inter-clan conflicts could also adversely affect the program. The area also experiences conflicts between host and pastoral communities due to competition for pasture land and water.

The Program

The innovative microfinance program in the village of Lietnhom is transitioning from the ravages of more than 20 years of war. Years after the peace agreement, hundreds of thousands were still internally displaced and others who had found a home were looking to rebuild their shattered lives.

Working with a consortium of partners including the Episcopal Church of Sudan, Five Talents is assisting a village banking project in Wau in the state of Western Bahr el Ghazal. This is one of the first projects of this type in South Sudan.

The target of this project is the Dinka community in Bahr el Ghazal. The project will empower mainly women by offering credit, literacy and numeracy skills to develop their small scale businesses and increase their competency. In the area, most households are headed by women, as men are engaged in the armed forces. Currently, women survive by doing petty merchandise, beer brewing, keeping cows, and living off what they grow.

Five Talents is also working with Mothers' Union in Khartoum, Sudan, to nurture a literacy and financial education program.

The Need

Five Talents hopes this program will be a model that can be expanded and replicated into other parts of the Wau Diocese and across South Sudan, if funding is found. In 2012, we exceeded our goal of reaching 5,470 clients in Sudan and South Sudan by almost 500.

We'd appreciate your continued prayers for this transformative program. Please help us expand our work in South Sudan and Sudan either by making a one-time donation or by signing up to "Walk with Us" as a recurring donor. A monthly gift of $10 will transform up to five lives.

Are you on Facebook? Become an online advocate for Five Talents! Our online "flash drive" has everything you need to promote the work and mission of Five Talents.

Updated December 2012

Over the next three weeks, you'll have to decide on gifts for a select group of friends and family members.

Fortunately, we've got a gift idea that we think you'll love: Instead of buying them a Starbucks gift card, or a tree ornament, send your loved ones a Five Talents e-card.

Here's how it works:

• Visit our eGift Catalog and pick from among the 10 e-card options. Prices range from $25 to $50. Every e-card features beautiful photography that captures an aspect of Five Talents' work in a particular country. Your purchase will count as a donation for that particular country and program.
• At the end of your transaction, you will be prompted to enter the e-mail addresses of either 5 individuals (for every $25 e-card) or 10 individuals (for every $50 e-card). Each person will receive an e-card explaining that a gift was made in his or her honor towards Five Talents' work in, for example, savings group formation in South Sudan (see the above e-card image of the "One Nation" savings group in South Sudan).

Your e-card purchases are tax-deductible, and they are a great way to spread holiday cheer and share the joy of giving with your loved ones.

With every e-card purchase, you are contributing to the transformation of lives in some of the most under-served communities in the world.

Click here to send a set of Five Talents e-cards today!