Giving Tuesday - Empowering Lives International

As we celebrate the stories below, we are so grateful for our partners who are making this possible. Would you prayerfully consider becoming a part of someone else's story by providing ongoing training for emerging leaders in East Africa for $25 a month?

Family HOPE

Stay tuned on facebook to hear one of our ELI-USA staff members go into more detail about these amazing stories. If you don’t follow us on Facebook yet, click here!

Invest Now with a Recurring Gift

Empowering Villages with Hope!

$25/month or $300/year empowers emerging leaders to impact their villages

(for every 25 people who give $25/month, another village can be empowered)

Invest Now with a Special Gift

Empowering Villages with HOPE!

$50 provides a life-skills workshop in a village

$90 trains a woman to leave illegal brewing

$250 provides a village outreach/evangelism weekend

$1,800 empowers a village cohort to lead a community

$8,000 provides Family HOPE to an entire village

Never has poverty's grip on the Keredi Slum been more felt than when the borders to Rwanda were closed and the entire city of Bukavu was put on lockdown due to COVID-19. All business activities were stopped, all schools were closed, supply chains were cut off, food supplies dwindled, and inflation skyrocketed.

Families went hungry and parents were desperate.

In response to the need, ELI leadership in DR Congo has developed a training program to help parents get back on their feet and even make greater strides out of poverty. This World Changer Training Program will empower parents to be role models for their children and communities. They will:

Start new, better, and healthier businesses
Learn how to cultivate their personal relationships with Christ
Be equipped as leaders who will train other parents of students at the ELI Academy to follow in their footsteps!

The Need: $33,000

$15,000 to ignite a World Changer training program for 60 parents

$18,000 to close the 8-month COVID-19 deficit because families could not pay school fees that cover teachers' salaries

I want to crush poverty in DR Congo!

Stories of HOPE in action!

Jean Claude

Poverty makes life hard. COVID-19 only makes it worse.

For the Mulumeoderhwa family in DR Congo, the COVID-19 lockdown meant extreme hunger, often going days without food. When the sight of their starving children became too much, Dad decided to leave home in search of food. But on his way out he tragically slipped and fell down the stairs from their lofted shack, dying instantly.

His wife and 11 children were devastated. The crying from hunger turned into crying over losing both their father and any last shreds of hope that they would outlast COVID’s horrific consequences. Fear overtook them all.

For little Jean Claude, life was turned upside down. Thankfully love and care soon arrived from friends like you and the ELI Academy!

Click here to read his full story

Indimwinja Ntumulo

Life for Indimwinja and her family was hard long before the coronavirus reached DR Congo. Poverty, violence, war, starvation . . . these were all daily struggles for their family of 10 for as long as she can remember. One night, war broke out in their village and her husband was taken by rebels. He was tortured for four days before being returned to his family severely crippled. Indimwinja was filled with a mix of emotions: happy her husband was home, devastated for the pain he had endured, scared the rebels would return, and unsure how to provide for their family. She decided moving to the slum community of Keredi would keep them safest, so they grabbed the little they had and left.

Although Keredi was safer, they still lived in poverty. Her husband was now unable to work, and they couldn’t afford the therapy that could help him recover. As if their struggle weren’t hard enough, the coronavirus shut down everything in DR Congo. Indimwinja had been selling t-shirts and vests along the streets, but her business suddenly stopped and their resources were quickly drained. Nothing she did was enough to provide for their family. Most days her children went to sleep with little to nothing to eat. She felt hopeless and drained. Would things ever get any better?

Click here to read her full story