Microenterprise
Because poverty and unemployment are the root causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the slums, Hope Partnership tries to address these issues in two ways:

• Directly, by providing jobs at the Hope Center and schools for cooks, teachers, social workers, and guards.

• Indirectly, by offering microenterprise training. The training uses CHE materials, which emphasize a personal relationship with Christ that leads to behavioral changes.

Microenterprise is a very simple concept. The Hope team offers 27 hours of training to a community group of 20-30 people. In addition to financial topics, the training includes several hours of teaching on evangelism, prayer, and ethics. After the sessions, each participant has a business plan and an understanding of loan repayment, bookkeeping, and marketing. Each participant invests some of his or her own money and begins a small business with the help of a seed grant from Hope Partnership. Hope continues to help with loans as a business needs expansion.

Specific spiritual topics are integrated into the training, and as the new entrepreneurs meet to pay back and receive loans, prayer and Bible study are presented, so both the physical and spiritual sides of transformation are addressed. The men and women feel empowered by the ability to have control over their own economic state and future, which leads to an improved standard of living and subsequent behavior changes. People come to Christ and are discipled through the training and accountability groups. And as they work and earn a living, they begin to tithe in the churches.

The cost of providing microenterprise training is about $75 per person. The grants and loans range from $8 to $400 per person.