Helping folks help themselves works!

Helping folks help themselves works!

Tha’s why we do it.

Subject: To our supporters & friends

As supporters and interested groups, you deserve to know about our work and our projects. We remain focused on programs and communities actively engaged or highly prone to child trafficking.  Prevention, Recovery and Rehabilitation remain our primary driving purposes because we believe human trafficking is more than a social cause, we believe it is a Gospel cause.

Please, allow me a quick summary of how our mission works. We are decidedly Evangelical and SBC grounded and work largely with similarly aligned and planted Cambodian church leaders. Our visas are thru a locally organized NGO. Being a local based NGO we have great latitude and less government interference. This is a joy to us. While many other groups are facing increasing government interference, we are not. So, we take advantage of this opportunity and open door while it is still open.

We do not “fund” ongoing work. We have no employees. We have no buildings. We work into communities thru the local church and local Christian leaders. The “work” is theirs to own and we simply mentor. For example, many NGOs have opened schools, have large staff commitments and building upkeep (and now more government interference). We mentor local people to become the teachers in their own schools. We teach teachers. On the business side, many NGOs have opened workshops and small factories and employ workers which now results in significant overhead and more recently, government interference. We instead, mentor entrepreneurs who own and operate their own businesses and we help them commercialize their product outside their village, and outside their country.  Products based on materials they can source and labor they can hire from their village.

We believe this presents a sustainable model. Marketplace Missions is a term now being tossed around as a model that fits third world missions. We have been at it for over 3 years. We believe it works.

Therefore, our budget is small and primarily involves our support on the field and travel to conduct our work. Our Advisory Board approved budget is about $70,000 per year for everything: Ministry materials, living allowance, insurance, vehicle rental/maintenance/fuel, travel, government documents (visa, permits, drivers license, taxes), phones, internet, and ongoing language training/assistance.

These are our current in country needs:

* Media. Development of a series of short video clips and interviews with victims/ at- risk workers telling their story of recovery, reintegration, and the power of the Gospel in changing their lives. Also cultural context video for “B” roll
* ESL training. Participate in ESL training both as “Train the teacher” and in actual evening classrooms in churches. Specifically methods of instruction for teachers and phonics in classrooms
* Graphic design training. Making fliers, promotional handbills, etc several enterprises we are developing involve the sale of local services such as travel/tour operators. Design of promotional materials is rather rudimentary. Printing is cheap here but design is challenging.
* Teacher workshops. Instructional methods in a classroom. Teachers here rarely have a solid educational background themselves. Private schools are financially out of reach for most people and government schools are poor. We assist villages in training locals by weekly training classes and holding centralized multi day conferences in the city.
* Sewing. Simple pattern use and design for beginners and intermediate
* Jewelry design. Simple Pinterest styles and YouTube styles of cord and beads. Training also for what designs are more desirable in US markets.
* Financial planning. Home budgeting and small business budgeting. As income develops there is very little thought beyond spend. Savings is a foreign concept and debt becomes a trap as it becomes available.

In US needs
*. Continue brand awareness for Made27 and develop retail placements for items made in village development programs.
*. Bring together a network of churches recognizing and willing (dare I say desiring) to enhance awareness in the US of this issue not merely as a social issue but more importantly as a Gospel issue.

Seems like a bunch of stuff. I hope this continues to be a fit. If you know a group interested in working with us in any of these areas, please help connect us with them.

Interested? Engage   If you already support us with donations that support this work ongoing, we express our deep appreciation.  If you have not yet joined us with a donation, please, as you are able, donate here. 

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