Barnabas gets disadvantaged Christians back in business

Barnabas Aid is helping Christians who are in economic difficulties because of anti-Christian discrimination to start up or develop their own small businesses.

Much of this support comes from our Small Business Start-Up Fund, which provides capital, materials and training for Christians to help them earn a living. It is especially significant for converts from other faiths, who find it particularly difficult to get jobs because of hostility and discrimination. Becoming self-sufficient not only provides for their basic needs, but also gives them self-respect and builds them up in their faith.

Recent recipients of the Small Business Start-Up Fund include 20 impoverished Sudanese Christian women who each received a £90 sewing machine and an intensive one-month training course in sewing and tailoring; a church in Central Asia, which was given a grant to buy a 17-seater minibus for a transport enterprise; and 30 women from a church in Niger who were given small loans for businesses including hairdressing and food stalls.

Barnabas Aid is also helping former pig-farmers in Egypt become self-sufficient again after they lost a key source of income when the government culled their pigs.

Sewing Success

The 22-year-long civil war in Sudan ravaged the lives of millions of Christians, leaving many as destitute refugees. Barnabas Aid supports a Khartoum-based project, which trains women - mainly from the refugee camps around the capital - in sewing and tailoring so they can earn a living and start rebuilding their lives.

A Sudanese Christian learning to sew

Recent beneficiaries include 20 impoverished women from the Nuba mountains. One of them, whose family was left destitute after the civil war, said:

We returned to our district after the end of the war... We were surrounded by a very fundamental terrorist group. We had no houses after they burned ours. We lived for a long time under the trees. I glorify the Lord who sent me here... When I return to my district, I will help my needy people with the sewing I have learned.

The women completed an intensive one month training course, and each was given a sewing machine to take away, equipping them to put their new skills to use straight away. The project has been running since the civil war ended in 2005. As well as learning practical skills, the women are also encouraged spiritually as they study the Bible and pray together.

Barnabas supports another sewing enterprise in Central Asia where it is very difficult for Christian converts from Islam to find employment. This business was started by a Christian couple, who already owned three old sewing machines, in their home.

Christian women at work in the sewing business

After they received a grant of £1,553 from Barnabas Aid they have been able gradually to expand the business and now employ eight Christian women. They make "kurpachas", brightly coloured seating rugs, as well as other garments including pillowcases and clothing, which are sold at bazaars and to wholesale clients.

Like the Sudanese women, they also benefit spiritually from being able to pray together and have fellowship with one another while at work. The husband wrote to us, "The sisters have constant work and earn money for their families. It is very important for us. We thank Barnabas Aid very much for the assistance. Praise the Lord for it."

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Motoring on

"Thanks to your support three people from our church have stable jobs, getting a salary that provides for their family... It is also very good for our church and for the development of the Kingdom of God on earth."

This van provides an income for three Christians and supports the church

These were the words of our partner at a church of Christians from a Muslim background in Central Asia that received a grant of £4,664 from Barnabas Aid. They used the sum to buy a 17-seater minibus and lessons for a driver to gain a special licence that allows him to drive passenger transport vehicles.

They have now established a profitable transport enterprise in the city where they live, daily making eight round trips between the railway station and the central bus station. Three people are employed in the business, which tithes a portion of its income back to the church.

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Enterprising Women

Barnabas Aid has assisted 30 women at a Nigerien church where nearly all of the female members were struggling to feed their children and pay the rent.

Some of the women ran small businesses already but lacked resources to make them successful. A Barnabas grant of £2,400 gave each woman £80 to use as capital either to launch a new business or invest in an existing enterprise. The women are repaying the sum monthly with a small interest payment, which in turn will allow the church to provide loans for more women.

The women engage in a variety of activities including hairdressing, selling food, accessories and household items. These businesses are now enabling them to support their families.

One woman, pictured right, said:

I sell acassa, a paste made from corn. Thanks to the credit, I have continually had business and have not had one break. Thank God, I can now bear the expenses of my family. I live with my children, because their dad had to return to the village after health problems.

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Fresh start for pig-farmers

In 2010 Barnabas Aid gave £55,500 to help provide alternative sources of income for former pig-farmers in Egypt after the government culled their pigs. This happened in April 2009 when ministers erroneously claimed that the slaughter of all pigs in the country was necessary for the prevention of swine flu. As Muslims do not keep pigs, only Christians were affected by this move.

A local contact told us that the pig cull caused "great distress and loss of livelihood for about 300 families" in one of the garbage villages just outside Cairo, where some of the poorest Egyptian Christians live. They find it difficult to get jobs because of hostility and discrimination, so they earn a living by collecting and sorting refuse from the city. It includes not only household rubbish but also contaminated hospital waste, through which the families catch many diseases. The pigs were an additional resource for some of these families; the animals ate the waste food and provided a source of protein.

Flock of sheep and goats

The money sent by Barnabas Aid this year is now being used to help a number of families become self-sufficient again. One family of nine, consisting of a husband, wife, two children, parents and three adult brothers, has started a small-scale plastic recycling enterprise with a machine they received costing £1,724. It separates and cleans the plastics, which can then be sold.

Another 31 families were given livestock such as buffalos, goats and sheep as well as money to buy animal feed for a few months. And five families have set up grocery stores in their homes after receiving funds to buy goods from a wholesaler.

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Give Today:

To help disadvantaged Christians become self-sufficient donate to 00-356 Small Business Start-Up Fund. Donate to 00-356

To specifically help Egyptian Christians who lost their livelihoods following the pig cull, donate to project 11-819 Self-sufficiency for former pig farmers. Donate to 11-819