“If you live in a house like this, something good has happened,” McDonald Kajani told us, orienting us to the context of Manyamula Village in northern Malawi. Last June, he proudly showed us around his four-bedroom home, with new wood floors and glass windows. Whereas before he had a thatched roof, now he has corrugated tin sheets. McDonald and his wife in front of their new, fancy home Out front, McDonald has nine cows and four pigs. Each is an investment. The cows help plow

You’ve probably read many of my blog posts about our Small Business Fund (SBF) program for entrepreneurs. Small groups receive a $150 (now $250) grant and local coordinators provide training and mentorship. It’s easy to share success stories from the entrepreneurs, and to see the lives changed as a result of their hard work. However, last June in Kenya, a conversation with the SIA SBF Coordinators gave me a fuller picture of the successes and challenges of implementing the pr

Everything about the Manyamula COMSIP Cooperative in Malawi embodies community spirit in action. They are at once a farmer cooperative, peer counselors, savings and loans providers, a social network, and a vehicle for local economic development and charity. “This cooperative puts people first and strives to meet members’ needs. It helps us do together what we cannot do on our own,” said chairperson Canaan Gondwe during SIA’s visit to Manyamula in June. Read more about the Sma

Guest post by Gloria Teimuge, Eldoret Kenya Traditional brewing of alcohol is still common in Kenyan communities and has remained an important activity despite the introduction and commercialization of other types of brews. It is a vital aspect in the rural economy. Some families have their sole income generated from the making and selling of alcohol. In Kenya, the most common types of traditional brews are: Chang’aa (a distilled home-brewed grain-based spirit with up to 86%

The 2019 Fall & Winter newsletter is here! You can view a PDF version here and hard copies are in the mail this week! These guys are part of the SIA team in Manyamula, Malawi! Winkly, Mbwenu, and Sylvester helped Kathleen King and I visit over 35 of the 200+ SIA supported businesses in the area! In this newsletter we feature: Meet “Notorious for Jesus” Small Business Fund leader, Ruth, in Eldoret, Kenya Read our new Mission Statement Photo collage from my five weeks in Africa

Hello SIA friends! After a much-needed break, I am back in the SIA office and working through the photos, memories, reports, and stories from the trip. Part of difficulty in returning from any SIA trip to Africa is that the daily work of site visits is so different from SIA desk work in North America. What do site visit days looks like? Samson and Sharon from Universal Love Alliance (SIA partners in Uganda) wrote up the following summary about the three days that Barbara and

It is with shock and grief that I write this tribute to a dear friend and colleague, Barbara Anne Neighbors Deal, who died on the morning of July 4th in Eldoret, Kenya. She experienced cardiac arrest, while in recovery from surgery in Eldoret in mid-June for a perforated intestine and septic shock. In her last days she was lovingly looked after by dear friends (both long-time and new friends) Samuel and Rhoda Teimuge, Gloria Teimuge, Naomi Ayot, and Amy Rogers. We know so man

The work part of the trip is done!! Here is the trip in numbers: 5 weeks 3 countries Hours in a car = too many to count 3 Nights in a thatched roof hut So many cups of chai shared 5 days gathering with our Small Business Fund Coordinators 6 languages singing “God is so good” Tanya, Dennis and Barbara relaxing after a lot day visiting Small Business Fund groups in Eldoret, Kenya. Dennis has a huge heart for helping others and training people to be entrepreneurs. We met with an

Last week was SIA Board Member Kathleen King’s first visit to a Malawian village. I appreciated her new-comer observations on what she saw in Manyamula. Here is her post: We spent the last five days in a rural village called Manyamula, Malawi. Our partners here help run a savings and loans cooperative (meaning community members can buy shares in this cooperative and then can receive loans at rates way lower than Malawian banks offer). They may use these loans to improve their

Even though it was the day of the funeral of the husband of a group member, over 60 women (and one man) met at the church in Lumakanda Village to welcome us with song, testimony, tea, and donuts. These women were all members of the Visionary Women’s Centre in western Kenya, working to gain greater social and economic justice for themselves and all women in their community. When we first arrived, people were still taking tea, and so we waited while they finished eating and dri

This post is an update from Barbara Deal, SIA Board Member, on her experience at the SIA Small Business Fund Coordinator Conference last week in Eldoret, Kenya. Dear Companions in Spirit, Greetings from Eldoret, Kenya! The conference for the Spirit in Action Coordinators ended last night. Attending were six Coordinators for the Small Business Fund in Uganda, Kenya, and Malawi. Each work with and mentor between a dozen and almost 200 small business project partners. SIA local

Greetings from Uganda! Barbara and I landed Sunday morning in Entebbe and were greeted by our amazing local coordinator, Naomi Ayot. (Thank you, Naomi, for all the logistics work you have done for our trip!) That same day we arrived, we met with Samson and Sharon of Universal Love Alliance, who are supporting the rights of women, HIV+ people, and LGBT individuals. Here is Barbara’s direct account of that inspiring gathering: Today we met with 20 men and women who have taken p

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. ~ Rumi The visa for Uganda is approved. The one for Kenya is in the works. And I’m just pulling together the last documents to send to the Malawian embassy in Washington, DC for that visa. I got the booster vaccine for cholera and dug out my water filter bottle. Yes – in under one month I’ll be heading to the African continent for my fourth visit to SIA partners in Kenya, Ma