Home of Hope is a non-profit organization that helps children and one way we are doing this is by helping their mothers through the Tumaini Project.
Esther has been able to rebuild her life after losing nearly everything. She is an incredible, 34-year-old woman from Goma, Congo who is a single mother to seven children. Her husband abandoned the family and she began selling jewelry to earn a living. In 2013 she was taking a work trip in Butembo by bus through a remote national forest when a gang of rebels stopped the bus and took five of the women. The bus driver was ordered to continue driving or be killed. The rebels raped the women on the bus and six different men raped Esther before she fainted. She is unsure of what exactly happened afterward but found herself in a clinic bed when she became conscious. She was told that she did not contract HIV. The rebels stole her money so when she came home to Goma she had to start over again with no capital for her business. She began washing clothes for others in order to feed her children.
Esther came to the Tumaini Project in 2014 and through a 20 dollar microloan, she was able to start her jewelry business again. She was hoping to increase her business so that all of her children can go to school, as now only four of them go.
Today she is a great businesswoman selling jewelry with six other women working alongside her. Some of the women make up to 10 dollars per day. Her life has changed for the better and she is being used to help change the lives of others!
Donate today to help women like this with the Tumaini Project!
Article written by: Dan Peters and edited by Bethany Caldow