2022 Year End

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, the famous Christmas song states and we agree. Not only do we get to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s, but in the days prior to the holidays Investing Hope Foundation is busy disbursing the thousands of dollars of savings to the children, youth and families that committed to saving this year.

The joy, and pride of accomplishment are only out done by the dreams and hope renewed. This year the 4,048 kids in our program have saved over

$51,000 USD and the 1,275 adults saved over $125,000 USD. Additionally, the adults lent over $19,000 USD from their savings to members of their groups and so far, the payback rate has been over 99.9%. During 2022, Investing Hope’s facilitators taught 2,076 training modules to children and 53 financial management workshops to adults.

Even more important than the totals, is what the kids are learning. More and more kids are choosing to invest their year end savings in other business opportunities. Others are finding new products to sell to increase their savings. Because many of the kids are in rural areas, investment of savings in animals has become popular. Others are seriously saving for their university studies.

How far can $30 USD in savings go? Amazingly far if you invest it in a pig! Aldeyair Mejia, 13 years old is one of our young savers and decided to use his 90,000 pesos (approx. $30) in savings to invest in a pig last year. Since purchasing the pig last year, it has been pregnant 4 times. The first time, his pig gave birth to 9 piglets. He used the money to buy clothes and shoes that he needed. The second time, the pig had 16 piglets. He sent some of the pigs to a farm to fatten them. With the money from the others, he helped pay for a special training course for his brother. The third pregnancy resulted in tragedy. A neighbor who was annoyed by the pigs, threw hot water on the sow killing all the piglets inside her. The pig is currently expecting it's fourth litter. This time the litter will be sold, and the money used to buy a computer and a printer so Aldeyair can offer printing and photocopying services in his village.

Aldeyair and his pigs.

After investing their savings in purchasing pregnant ewes last year, the “Working for a Better Future” YES Club in San Jose, Guajira doubled their savings from the year before and they now have 16 sheep in their flock! Additionally, they used part of their savings to plant a special grass to feed their growing flock. These savings are meant to be long term for use of the kids when they graduate from high school. The lambs pictured below were the second batch born to their ewes.

Four years ago, Investing Hope worked with a local non-profit in the remote rural communities near La Mesa de los Santos in Santander, Colombia. After starting by selling candy kabobs, the kids in the YES Clubs have expanded their products also selling cilantro, fruits and vegetables and local desserts. The savings continue to grow. This year the children and youth in the area saved over 27,000,000 pesos ($6,212 USD) and the adults saved over 157,000,000 pesos ($36,000 USD). As the savings have grown so have the dreams of the kids and their parents.

El Pablon is a semi-rural community outside of Bucaramanga, the capital city of the department of Santander in Northeastern Colombia. Nora Patricia Tarazona had never saved in her life, but decided to join Investing Hope’s Group for Entrepreneurship and Maximizing Savings operated by IHF’s partner, FANDIC.

This year Nora, her husband and two boys committed themselves to saving. They did so well they won the prize for best savers in their respective groups. Nora surpassed her savings goal of 1,500,000 pesos and is planning on using the money to invest in her cleaning supplies business. With this new capital she will be able to extend her business to surrounding rural communities. Her two sons, Deivi (9 years old) and Joseph Alejandro (7) are equally excited. They are planning on investing their savings in a business. They are planning on buying chickens to raise and increase their income.

In 2023, we plan on starting 100 new YES Clubs and 50 new GEMS groups. In order to reach these goals we needed to identify where we can grow and how to finance it.

Investing Hope Foundation began working with some churches affiliated with the Compassion International child sponsorship program in Cucuta on the Venezuelan border. Because of the great success of the 20 groups formed in 2022, we are in discussions with Compassion to expand our program to more Compassion churches in Colombia.

We are currently working with two Rotary Clubs in Colombia to implement the YES Clubs and GEMS groups. Clubs in Monteria and Albania, Colombia are currently implementing projects. Two more Colombian Rotary Clubs have shown interest in working with us in 2023.

In January 2023, Investing Hope will be meeting with the office of the Secretary of Education for the Cundinamarca department regarding implementing the program in more public rural schools.

In October, Marret Asset Management in Toronto underwrote the costs of the “Invest in Hope” dinner and invited 140 people to hear about the work of Investing Hope Foundation. The event raised over $30,000 for Investing Hope’s growth plan.

The Red Leaf Foundation in Canada awarded Investing Hope Foundation a $20,000 grant to expand its work in the Cucuta region.

Two Rotary Clubs in Calgary, Alberta, Canada united to fund the expansion of 50 GEMS groups in Colombia over the next two years.

In August we began working with a group of high schoolers at Pope High School in Marietta, Georgia who are learning about the work of Investing Hope, poverty and Colombia. They will be fundraising for Investing Hope and plan on visiting our work in April. This is a pilot and model for work with other high schools. If you have interest in learning more, let us know!

We recently finished our Case for Support that outlines Investing Hope’s purpose, impact, and goals. This is available upon request.

We thank God for your support of our work in Colombia and hope you will continue to support us in 2023 as we work to expand to 10,000 kids and 3,500 adults in the next three years. Please consider giving now.

 If you are interested in seeing Jim’s presentation at the “Investing in Hope” dinner, we’ve added the video link below.