Donor Experience
In October of 2000, Jack and Lisa Williams attended a conference in Salt Lake City hosted by Unitus. Inspired by the stories of poverty and efforts to alleviate such, the Williams returned to their home in Elk Grove, California, and began talking to many of their friends. Together, they decided to do something about the extreme poverty in Central America, and started the Elk Grove Action Group.
The group began first by sponsoring village banks in Honduras. Through ACP, a microcredit program started under HELP International, the Elk Grove Action Group provided dozens of small loans ($100 - $150) to women with small businesses. These women moved on to improve their homes, grow their businesses, and bless the lives of their families.
Because the support for the Elk Grove Action Group continued to grow, the Williams started supporting more projects through HELP International. In 2002, the group helped sponsor Mindi Reschke, one of the HELP International volunteers. Mindi was key to HELP's health programs and English classes that year. Interested in continuing support for the programs in El Salvador, the group sponsored another village bank in the town of El Paraiso. The bank started with 20 women and has now grown to 34 clients, both men and women! A second bank was started in Valle Nuevo, a nearby community that has grown to 24 bank members. Based on national averages, between these two banks alone, the Elk Grove Action Group is directly blessing the lives of 270 in over 50 families.
Flor Villanueva, one of the members of the Valle Nuevo village bank, recently said, "I am a single mother. I studied through High School and then got a job at a clothing plant, but when I got pregnant, they wouldn't let me work. I started selling clothes door to door so that I could care for my son and work for him. The $100 loan has helped me a lot. I didn't have the money to buy any kind of variety of clothing, but now that I have the loan I can do that. I can buy many different articles of clothing. Three days a week I go out and sell clothing while I take care of my son. I thank God, HELP International, OEF, and everyone who ensures that this village bank works here in Valle Nuevo".
Capitalizing on the growth of the families in Valle Nuevo and El Paraiso, the Elk Grove Action Group took another step at helping them by purchasing several school bags for the children of the village bank members. These school kits include new materials and clothing that will allow these children to attend a local public school. Because the expense of purchasing these supplies and a school uniform are often prohibitive, many of the children in the town never attend a formal school. Illiteracy rates in the rural regions of El Salvador is extremely high, and as a result, the cycle of poverty is often left unbroken for many generations.
While the school bags were helping younger students, the group decided to initiate a college scholarship program for older students that might want to continue their studies. For a few hundred dollars a year, the group will pay the tuition, books, and travel expenses for two to three college students every year.
The investment in the community of El Paraiso and Valle Nuevo have returned great dividends. Many families have improved their standard of living through improved profits in business. Children are learning and able to attend school that would have otherwise been prohibitively expensive to attend. Teens now have the opportunity to attend college as word of the Elk Grove college scholarship program spreads throughout the school community.
To top it all, the group is now investigating the possibility of starting a farm animal project in the town of El Almendro. Families will have the opportunity to raise chickens, cows, or goats in an effort to refuel the local economy and help families provide for one another. Two women have already been given chickens and have begun making a profit that they use then to help purchase better and more food for their children and grand-children.
It is the efforts of a few individuals like Jack and Lisa Williams that make the miracle that is HELP International come to pass. From a one-day seminar in Salt Lake City, sprung new hope for hundreds of families, countless children, and even a HELP volunteer, who will now spend the rest of her life with the increased knowledge and understanding of her own potential impact on poverty.