Uganda — Cross International

Replacing teen marriage with education and opportunity in Uganda.

June 11, 2020 by Cross International

You can see Immaculate’s drive to succeed in her eyes: round and curious, yet ablaze with determination. Sixteen-year-old Immaculate has a natural gift for writing and a dream to be a midwife. Two years ago this aspiration was impossible, as she faced an early marriage and motherhood, the likely path for most young girls in Uganda. But God led Immaculate to Project Princess Initiative (PPI), a Cross International ministry partner where teen girls find hope, compassion, and opportunity for a better future.

Immaculate lives in Kampala, Uganda, where more than 700,000 girls between the ages of six and twelve have never attended school. Forty percent of girls in Uganda are married before they turn 18, and the average age girls give birth for the first time is 18.9 years old.

When a young girl is in school, the possibility of early marriage drastically diminishes.
Immaculate’s mother, like most mothers, wants the best for her daughter. Earning only $5 USD a week selling dried fish, she sees PPI as a pathway to a better life for Immaculate. With strength and humility, she embraces that PPI provides her daughter a future of opportunity – truly a gift from God.

PPI serves 951 girls with mentoring, life skills training, tutoring, and health education. PPI sends counselors into schools to reach at-risk girls with messages of faith, wise choices, and the importance of education. Girls are able to meet with tutors and counselors, receive vocational training, learn about reproductive and menstrual health, and be medically treated. Younger girls look to their “Big Sisters”, older girls living out what they learn at PPI, for encouragement as they grow and thrive in the program and in faith. Seeing other girls and women like them succeed invokes hope and confidence.

Children living in crisis need opportunity, not charity.
Cross International’s desire is to bring kids to a full, rich life with hope, potential, and a bright future of becoming an adult able to meaningfully contribute to their community. We believe that we can reach the family through the child; to help that child thrive is how we help families and communities.

Vulnerable children like Immaculate are under the special care and protection of God. It is our privilege, as His people, to contribute to their redemptive story. Please consider supporting our Thriving Kids initiative today and give children like Immaculate an opportunity to stand firm on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Your donation supports the Thriving Kids initiative to answer God’s call to love orphans and children.

Every child has potential. Not every child has opportunity. With Cross, you can give them that gift.

Ministering to African Women Through Microenterprise

December 10, 2019 by Cross International

As we continue to raise support for Thriving Kids Africa, we want to highlight one way these effective programs are changing the lives of 15,000 children and their family members: Microenterprise.

What is a microenterprise? It’s a small business run by one person with a limited number of employees. These small ventures make up a large percentage of businesses in Africa, and they are potential paths out of poverty for many families. But African women who want to start their own microenterprises face significant challenges.

In many African countries, women have limited rights to own property and open bank accounts on their own. Cultural expectations can be a hindrance, especially in rural areas, where women are often expected to rely on their husband or extended family for support instead of going into business for themselves. If a woman does succeed in launching a start-up, lack of information, mentorship and/or training can limit her ability to choose more profitable business models or expand their ventures.

Even though there are currently more female entrepreneurs in Africa than their male counterparts, studies show that female business owners have access to just ⅙ of the capital male business owners do. And those woman-owned enterprises’ profits are 38 percent lower than those owned by men!

Helping female entrepreneurs access business training, finance programs, technology and social support systems can help them overcome these barriers—and lift their families out of poverty.

Thriving Kids Africa is funding two microenterprise projects that offer essential economic and spiritual support.

In Malawi, our partner Ambuya Development Center is ministering to women in the village of Thanganyika. They estimate 60 percent of women there are the sole providers for their families because of their husband’s neglect. Cross International donors help those women learn entrepreneurial skills and join an empowering network of female business owners. The program gives these women access to a two-year cycle of microloans that give them the capital they need to start a new microenterprise. This support helps women in rural Malawi, feed their families, send their children to school, leave abusive marriages and ultimately escape poverty.

Read Esther’s entrepreneurial success story.

In Zambia, our partner Kachere Development Program brings together female heads of households into self-help groups where women can brainstorm solutions to their community’s social and economic issues. They also gain the profitability training they need to grow their small businesses along with access to three rounds of low-interest microloans, which the group self-manages. The generosity of Cross International givers makes it possible for these women to care for their families and better their communities. Nutrition, education, safe housing, medical care: All of this becomes possible with microenterprise support.

Help empower female entrepreneurs in Malawi and Zambia by giving to Thriving Kids Africa.

How meeting basic needs help vulnerable kids thrive in Malawi

December 5, 2019 by Cross International

Roderick was born in the southern Malawi village of Thanhanyika with his future ahead of him. When he was three, that quickly changed. His parents died, leaving him in the care of elderly grandparents that could not afford to feed him. Roderick did not attend school because he was either too sick or working for food. In March 2019, his village encountered cyclone Idai, the worst tropical cyclone on record. Roderick’s family lost their home … twice.

A promising future was hard for Roderick to see.

In 2013, Roderick joined Ambuya Development Centre (ADC), a local Thriving Kids Africa partner. Rooted in Christianity, ADC’s mission is to empower vulnerable women and children of rural Malawi through formal education, workshops and training.

Today, Roderick is 10, and because of the love and support of generous Cross International givers like you, he is in grade four, receives food six days a week, lives in a safe, warm home, and has a thriving future ahead of him.

A village of opportunity.

Thanganyika Village is home to more than 5,300 people, many of them women and children. 85% of villagers are living on less than $1 a day. As a result of this severe poverty, the village struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, an HIV/AIDS pandemic, overcrowded homes due to the influx of orphaned children, drought and lack of access to education, food, clean water and safe homes.

When basic needs are met, children can thrive.

Together with ADC, we have built a holistic, integrated, multisectoral approach to helping the children of Malawi thrive. Our approach brings together clean water, education, a feeding program, safe housing and community centers and microloans.

Since its inception, ADC has been able to provide Thanganyika with life-changing resources like a solar-powered water system, organic vegetable gardens and the sharing of Christ’s love. Your continued support provides ongoing nourishment for the children in Roderick’s village, which supports overall health, improved school attendance and learning.

Our goals are big. Our God is bigger.

Today, our vision is to continue feeding 300 children six days a week, rebuild 335 homes and build a fellowship hall that includes a cafeteria, community event space and evacuation center. And because there are more female-led households in Africa today than ever before, we hope to offer microloans to 200 women so more mothers can feed, take care of, and send their children to school.

Through the power of Jesus, we know it’s possible!

As we look to the future in Thanganyika, southern Malawi and for all Thriving Kids Africa, we are prayerful that we can continuously grow programming year over year. Please consider monthly support to give families like Roderick’s hope for a future of possibility.

Ambuya Development Center: A Lesson in Loving Our Neighbors

December 3, 2019 by Cross International

Raising $515,000 to reach 15,000 children and their family members in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia—that’s Thriving Kids Africa immediate, urgent goal. But it is part of a much bigger picture, and much longer story.

“Thriving Kids Africa is not a year to year campaign,” says Zach Oles, Cross International’s Director of International Programs. “It’s a commitment, and that is most displayed in the Tanganyika Village with our local partner, Ambuya Development Center.”

Ambuya Development Center is a family-run Christian organization whose mission is to empower the women and children of rural Malawi and improve the livelihood of their communities. Their holistic development work is fueled by love and Jesus’s command to:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27 (NIV)

Ambuya was started by Dr. Victor Madziakapita and named in honor of their mother: Ambuya means “grandmother”. Dr. Victor grew up in the same community he know serves. His family worked hard and sacrificed much to send him to school. He earned his doctorate in development and worked for World Vision before beginning Ambuya to help meet his home village’s needs.

And the needs are great. Eighty-five percent of the population Ambuya serves lives on less than $1 a day, far below the international extreme poverty line (currently $1.90 a day). The HIV/AIDS pandemic has left orphans in need of care, many villagers struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, and the area lacks easy access to the basics: clean water, food and education. In addition, Cyclone Idai destroyed 300+ homes this spring, leaving many homeless.

“Dr. Victor totally relates to all of it because he lived it and suffered through it like these kids,” Zach says. “But this next gen doesn’t have to because of Ambuya.”

Dr. Victor’s family works together to lift their community up. One of his brothers, a pastor, is the board chair. His nephew is in charge of purchasing and logistics. His sister Esther is known as the heartbeat of the program, and the vegetables for their feeding program are grown in her backyard. It is a truly grassroots organization built on world-class development principles and genuine faith.

“Dr. Viktor is the success story for this community,” Zach says. “We get this high-caliber leader in the most local, most authentic Christian ministry that exists. That’s a win-win for us.”

Eighteen months ago, Cross International came alongside Ambuya to help install a clean water system to provide water for Thanganyika and other smaller villages in the area. Access to clean water was transformational. Cross International is now helping to support Ambuya’s projects, all designed to provide interconnected basic needs that can help break poverty cycles.

Cross International and the center feed 311 school children six days a week, using local food grown in the community.
They help pay schools fees for vulnerable children and provide educational and spiritual support.
They are teaching women entrepreneurial skills and funding business-launching microloans—143 so far.
They are rebuilding homes destroyed by Cyclone Idai.
They are building a Fellowship Hall to house their feeding program, host worship services and small groups, and provide a gathering place for the community.

Zach says Ambuya’s work and philosophy aligns perfectly with Cross International’s strategy. On a recent trip to visit Amubya and other African partners, Zach got to meet some of the people whose lives have been changed by Dr. Victor’s organization.

There’s Fanny and her baby sister, abandoned by their mother and being raised by their teenaged uncle. Their home was rebuilt by Ambuya after the cyclone, and Fanny receives food and school assistance as well. There’s Patricia, who became a mother at only 11. Twenty years later, she’s now in the microloan program, learning to run her own business. Tamala, who has four children, including one who has special needs, has a home and hope for the future thanks to Ambuya’s programs. The stories go on and on.

“Our partnership is based on long-term thinking,” Zach says. “It’s based on knowing the locals have the answers, not us. It’s based on respect and Christian attitudes. It’s based on love and kindness.”

Bring more love and kindness to Malawi’s women and children by giving to the Thriving Kids Africa campaign.

Sharing the Gospel Through Entrepreneurship

November 26, 2019 by Cross International

In rural Malawi, where Esther Fabiano lives, only 10 percent of rural Malawi students complete secondary school. But Esther has big dreams for her son. She wants him to graduate, so he can go on to attend college. Esther knows education is a powerful tool for fighting poverty. But in order to get her son the schooling he needs, Esther needed to earn money for his tuition. She had to go on her own learning journey as well.

Eighty percent of Malawi’s population relies on agriculture for its income and survival. Storms, droughts and accidents can destroy a family’s security in seconds. Esther was trying to earn extra money—and stability—for her family by selling cakes and grilled meat, but she didn’t have the resources she needed to make her business profitable.

Women in Malawi struggle to gain access to capital and markets. Tools that American entrepreneurs might take for granted (access to electricity, credit cards, business loans and the Internet) aren’t readily available in Malawi’s villages. Other barriers—including gender-based violence and a lack of representation in governmental leadership roles—make it even harder for Malawi’s female entrepreneurs to get ahead.

Thanks to donations to Cross International, Esther was able to take advantage of an empowering program run by one of our partner organizations, the Ambuya Development Center. The program teaches local women how to run a profitable small business at an average cost of just $39 per participant. Esther was welcomed into a supportive network of female entrepreneurs and given access to a two-year cycle of microloans to help her increase her earning potential.

Esther began by borrowing $13 to buy a pig. Through a system called kuvuula, she loans the pig to her neighbors to breed and receives half the piglets. She sells those piglets for cash to pay for her son’s school tuition. Following business best practices, Esther then diversified. She began purchasing and reselling food and took out a second microloan to buy two cows. She used some of her profits to buy and install solar-powered security lights to keep her growing business safe.

Because of your generosity to Cross International, Esther can afford to educate her son. That education will have a life-long impact on their family and their community. When you give to the Thriving Kids Africa campaign, you are giving to proven church-based programs that help families like Esther’s escape poverty—and know God’s love.

Help support other female small business owners and their children by giving to the Thriving Kids Africa campaign.

Sources: “Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality: Malawi.” USAID. Accessed 12 November, 2019.

“The World Bank in Malawi,” The World Bank. Accessed 12 November, 2019.

“School Completion Rates,” Unicef. November 2019.