Author: Rose Kiehle

Event Highlights:

• Community Strength:

A heartfelt thank you to the 24 incredible women who joined us for an evening of empowerment and collaboration. Your presence made the event a success.

• Empowering Women Globally:

Through your contributions, we were able to grant $7,145 in loans and grants to a total of 15 women. This brings our chapter total to an outstanding $80,377, impacting the lives of 231 women. Your generosity is creating a ripple of positive change. Once loans are repaid, a new woman is given a loan!

• Inspiration from Jessica Cummings:

We were honored to have Jennifer Cummings, Managing Director at The Mandate and Executive Director at Surfari Pals Inc. as our keynote speaker. Jennifer, with her southern charm, shared stories of the people of Uganda and all that the Mandate is doing to pour into the people. Their efforts to invest in the local people and give them the opportunity to lift themselves and their community up aligned so perfectly with our mission. Jennifer discussed the 5 areas of impact The Mandate focuses on:

1. Education
   1. Child sponsorship, University and Trade Schooling
      1. Salma – local girl who was put through university and is now back in the village and running the Widows & Orphans program
      2. Takia – sister of Salma who was supported all the way through Trade School and came back and now runs the tailoring program at the Hope Job Center
2. Women’s Health
   1. Hope for Girls – providing necessary supplies for menstrual cycles to allow the girls to stay in school. 
   2. Mama Kits – providing expectant mothers with clean/sterile supplies to birth a child as women are required to bring all supplies with them to birthing center 
3. Widows & Orphans
   1. Provide them with solar lights, charcoal stoves and food and supply assistance
4. Clean Water
   1. 13 bore holes (wells) have been created within  7 mile radius of the village. Kids now have water when at school and the community has access to clean water too.
5. Evangelism
   1. Prison Ministry and Sunday School for kids

Chicken Give Back Program

1. Provide chickens to families – require that they hatch the first laying (have to teach them “chicken multiplication” and that they can’t eat the chicken or eggs right away). They are required to give back 2 chicks to sustain the program. Then they are able to expand the number of chickens they have to eat, or sell the excess chicks/eggs.

Hope Job Center

1. 7 month tailoring program
   1. Provided education (reading, writing, math) plus tailoring skills 
   2. Able to bring children/babies with them and provided meals
   3. Take part in “give back” program by sewing the pads and bags for the Girls Kits and school uniforms for local children who can’t afford one
   4. After passing final exam (making their own graduation outfit) they are given a brand new sewing machine to go off and start their own business
   5. Program started in 2022 and 14 kids have graduated between the three classes

You can visit https://themandate.com/ to learn more or support the work they are doing.

If you were unable to join us in person, you can watch the recording of the event here (scroll down and click on the “iZosh 2024” box).

As we reflect on the success of this event, we look forward to the future with excitement. Check back here for updates on our FALL 2024 EVENT details and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay connected!

Questions or comments? Please email us at izosh.birmingham@gmail.com

On Friday October 4th, 55 women gathered to learn, give, and celebrate the joy of empowering women. Through the compassion and generosity of our iZōsh®️ Birmingham members and guests, we were able to grant $7,642 in micro-loans to 22 women around the world, bringing our chapter total to $13,342 of micro-loans to 48 women! By granting micro-loans to these women, we help them to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and reduce the risk of oppression and exploitation in their lives. We are so grateful for the support of Redeemer’s mission fund which allows us to host an iZōsh chapter here in Birmingham!

Our keynote speaker for our fall event was Dr. Alain Mukwege – research associate at the University of Michigan school of nursing and son of Dr. Denis Mukwege, 2018 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He educated us on the history of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and how the ongoing conflicts are financed in large part by the exploitation of the natural resources found in common household items. In contrast to the unspeakable violence against women was Alain’s message of hope. He described the work he and his father are doing at the Panzi Hospital where they have cared for over 50,000 survivors. Their goal is to transform pain into power and ultimately to change hate by love.

Lastly, we had the pleasure of hearing from Alain’s wife Deborah, who brought pieces from her beautiful Congolese wardrobe as well as purses that were handcrafted by the women at the Panzi hospital. To learn more about the Panzi Hospital or to support their work visit the Panzi Foundation website at https://www.panzifoundation.org. If you want to learn more about ending the violence ongoing in the Congo and to take steps to demand the development of Conflict-Free Mineral supply chains you can visit https://enoughproject.org/get-involved/take-action.

March 15th, 2019 was our innagural iZōsh®️ Event. Our first speaker was Robin Phillips, co-founder of iZōsh Ann Arbor and current President of iZōsh International. Robin spoke about the origins of iZōsh and shared stories of a few women she has met who were living in extreme poverty that were empowered beyond their wildest imaginations by micro-loans. Through the support of Redeemer’s mission fund and 44 individual women, we granted a total of 26 women living in extreme poverty micro-loans totaling $5,700!!!!

Additional photos will be downloaded soon

On March 5th, 2019 roughly 30 Redeemer women and friends came together to experience what it feels like to be a woman struggling to get out of extreme poverty. Through a role play activity, we assumed the role of a woman who has come together with other entrepreneurial minded woman in her village to grow her business and support one another through hardships with their collective savings. We will also went through the micro-loan process and through the support of Redeemer’s mission fund our chapter funded 6 women at this Event totaling $1,000 dollars. It is so incredible to see the results of women investing in women!!!

Click the photo to see additional photos of this event.