Business Women in Malawi, Operation: Employment
Indigenous missionary, Mervis Readson, shares with us about the success of her first cohort of ladies to complete business and discipleship training on the ground in Malawi. Ten women started with a micro-loan provided by Disciplers International with coaching by Mervis and her husband, Patrick. They developed a self-sustaining business model to provide support and seed money to encourage the women in the impoverished country to open, operate and ultimately direct independent businesses that serve others and provide for their own families.
“As someone who is a born again [Christian], it has been a desire in my life, and my husband Patrick’s desire, to do what we can to improve women’s lives, moving them from poverty to economic self-sufficiency.” - Mervis
Mervis had a vision of training women who have zeal, passion, willingness and a desire to no longer live in of poverty. Together, they prayed for God’s direction for the first all-women cohort to go through the training, and God granted their prayer request according to Matthew 7:7 - “Ask you shall be given; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened.”
Last year they started training ten women, all of whom obtained goods according to the particular small business they chose. One of the guidelines is that the owners need to have a unique business that does not compete with others in the cohort. Mervis has been following them since March 2021, advising, approving and encouraging each one.
“They are able to support their families with groceries and other daily needs. This has been a milestone to us in our ministry as well, because these women are always present at church functions, and are responsible to give a tithe to support our ongoing ministry. “ - Mervis
Once the year is complete, and the women have sustaining businesses, they pay back the micro-loan. That money is then reinvested in a new group of women. Mervis and Patrick are finishing the year with the first cohort and have another group of new business owners that have gone through training. Going forward the women will be borrowing with an interest of 10% which will be re-invested in more business owners. This will sustain the Readsons in their mission for the city of Blantyre in hopes to expand to all of Malawi.
It is our goal that Malawi will be no longer be called the poorest country in the world. We hope to reach this goal through your prayers, financial support and feedback. If you would like to help us bring more people out of poverty through the development of self-sustaining small businesses, please donate by clicking https://www.disciplersinternational.com/partnerships/giving
This article was originally posted in October 2021.