 Community Development
DAVAO, PHILIPPINES- HISG has launched a micro-enterprise
project in the city of Davao to connect with the people
there. The project is called Amigoas Internet Cafe, and
it started as a place where young people could come to
relax. The cafe has now branched out to offer classes in
internet trade skills such as PHP and HTML web development,
MySQL programming and graphic design. This training
gives people, especially out-of-school youth, the tools they
need to find a job.
The cafe staff has arranged for
some of the top programmers and artists in the city to teach
classes on nights and weekends so they are available to
everyone. The staff has also arranged for sponsorships to
defer much of the cost of the classes, making them open to all
students regardless of financial situation.
HISG
launched the Amigoas Cafe to help people in Davao start a
small business. Now those people are using the business
to help others in their community, and we are excited about
the possibilities to expand the impact of this
project.
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 Community Development
YEMEN- HISG staff visited several orphanages in Yemen
that had virtually no activities for children there.
These orphanages have no extra money to purchase things like
ping-pong tables, board games, basketball hoops, or soccer
gear. It was sad to see the children who had nothing to
do to pass the time. HISG shared this need with a
businessman in California who coaches a soccer team for
children with disabilities. He agreed to collect soccer
equipment if HISG could provide a way to get it to the
orphanages in Yemen. This partnership delivered over 100
new soccer balls, dozens of uniforms, shin guards, cleats,
back packs and bags to orphanages in the cities of Mukallah,
Hajjah, Sana'a, Taiz, Aden, and Maifa'a. Over 1,200
children all over Yemen were impacted. HISG delivered
the first ten balls on a visit to Mukallah and Maifa'a on the
eve of a soccer tournament. There were only two
balls at the entire tournament that held any air, and even
those had to be refilled at half-time of each game. This
meant that only four of the 16 teams in the tournament could
play at a time. HISG's delivery of the brand new balls
gave everyone a chance to play. The opportunity for
these children to play with the shining and fully-inflated new
balls was a special gift to them, and one they will not soon
forget. In the past six years HISG has moved over $20
million worth of humanitarian aid, at a minimal cost. If
you would like to partner with HISG to send gift-in-kind
donations to those less fortunate, please contact
us. |
 HISG Operations
In
a previous
edition of the Pulse Report, we reported on how HISG's
International Directors have begun to teach their community
development model in locations all over the world. This
model can be found online here.
We use the term "community development" because our ultimate
goal is to have communities transformed to the degree that
people begin helping each other, rather than waiting on help
from outside the community. The following story is an
example of the change that an HISG community development
project made in the lives of one family.
HISG has
partnered with a handicraft business in Jogjakarta, Indonesia
that exports crafts to Europe, the Middle East and North
America. This business provides a steady income for
artisans and crafters who would otherwise have no outlet for
their work. Many of the craftsmen had no jobs at all
before working at the handicraft business. One the
crafters described how he could not even afford to pay the
hospital bills from the birth of his newborn baby.
Because
he could not pay,
the hospital would not release the man's wife and
child.
The man was heartbroken, but with no money and no job, it
seemed unlikely that he would find the means to bring his wife
and child home. Soon, however, he was contracted to
begin work for the handicraft business, and he immediately
took his advance payment to the hospital to settle his bills
and release his family.
This story is an example of
how a small business can make a big difference in the lives of
people who have never known that kind of opportunity
before. Investing in a handicraft business may not sound
like a way to change the world, but for that man, his wife,
and their precious little baby, this business gave them the
chance to put their lives back together.
It would be
cliché to say "we are not giving a man a fish, we are teaching
him to fish." A better explanation of HISG's mission is
that we want to transform people's paradigms and empower them
to find their own solutions in their own community. The
story above describes how a family in a hopeless situation
regained their dignity through their own skills and resources
with a sustainable solution. That is when real
development happens, and real development transforms
nations.
Click here to
watch a video of workers in the handicraft
business
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 Department Focus
The HISG Training Center is located in the beautiful
Finger Lakes Region of western New York. The
110,000-square-foot complex is situated on 55 acres of land,
and was originally built in the 1940s by a branch of the
Catholic church called the Society of the Divine Word. The
property has changed hands several times since then, serving
as a Catholic school, a public school, a hospital, and a
church. HISG is in the process of renovating the buildings so
they can be used for an operations center as well as a meeting
and training facility.
Initial meetings were held this
fall at "the Mission," as it is locally known, and the
facility proved to be a unique and adequate setting. Old
dormitory rooms have been remodeled into living quarters, and
HISG is adding more living quarters and guest rooms to host
larger meetings and training courses.
The care and
renovation of a nearly 70-year-old building is a massive
undertaking. But the potential is equally massive, and
thus far the facility has been adapted to fill a variety
of needs. The Training Center is a key piece of the HISG's
ability to share our vision of connecting resources to needs
all around the
world.
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