A Bit of a Chance = A Huge Difference.

Today I got to do one of my favorite activities – be briefed by one of our social workers on the progress that Moms and Families have made over the past 6 months.  While we do this on an informal basis frequently, every 6 months we gather some very detailed information about how the Families are doing.

Here’s the cool thing.

For the Moms who have been with us over a year, they increased their salaries by 88% on average over the past year.  Almost doubling their income in one year’s time – how amazing is that?

Now, here’s the harsh news, but it has a silver lining in there.  On average, the mothers saw their rent increase 54% since last year.  Most of them are living in the same house, yet inflation and some speculation in the slums have caused rents to sky rocket.  To put this in perspective, imagine that your rent last year was $500 per month.   Now, this year it went up to $770, just because it could.   Ouch.  You would probably be faced with some difficult decisions.

Now, for almost all of these moms, if they had continued to try to live off of what they used to make, they would not have been able to pay this increase.  They also would not have been able to find cheaper housing to move into – its becoming very scarce.  They would have been evicted and there’s a good chance that some of them would have chosen to orphan their children when that happened.  It just would have gotten too tough.

However, most of the moms have been able to make an increase in rent like this, bought some basic home materials and have put money into savings over this past year.  Imagine.  All of that while making about  $1.70US per day.  All they needed was a bit of a chance, a bit of dignity restoration and they went running with it.   

They very proudly reported that they paid their rent themselves, on time.  They did not need someone to find them and threaten, but rather they could step up and hand over the rent money with a smile on their faces.  I’d love to have been there to see those transactions happen.

Of course these moms are still very materially poor, but they’re making headway.  More importantly than an increase in income for them is that for many of them the hopelessness is breaking off and they are someone who can make a difference.

Please continue to pray for them – for spiritual breakthroughs as well as breakthroughs in all areas of life.  And, thank you for partnering with us and these families – you are making a difference.