Women – Use Your Talents

What do you think about the idea that all God’s children are created equal?

EXAMPLE FROM SAVING GROUPS WITHIN FREE PENTECOSTAL FELLOWSHIP IN KENYA

Women are talented, but sometimes their talents are not used due to lack of opportunity or motivation to put them to use. Men and women are economically, socially, and politically equal. All over the earth, customs and traditions take away these powers from women, i.e., inability to inherit property from parents/husbands, lack of equal opportunity to go to school, and early marriages. Women lose much of their economic and social power and find it hard to regain it.

Tuinuane, a project run by Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya (FPFK) and supported by PYM (Norwegian Pentecostal Mission), has been working towards creating opportunities for women to actively take part in economic development. The project’s main goal is to improve poor women’s ability to sustain themselves economically and contribute towards their household income. The main strategy is the establishment of self-managed accumulating savings and credit associations (ASCAs) where “Use Your Talents”, local knowledge, skills and business training is promoted, and members get easy access to savings and credit services. The strategy is an effective tool to poverty reduction which ensures achievement of socio-economic strength and improved living standards. Exposure of members to entrepreneurial development and availability of credit facilities, enables them to venture into pursuing Income Generating Activities (IGA). Poor households use savings and credit to move from everyday survival to planning for the future: they invest in better nutrition, housing, health, and education. The establishment of Tuinuane groups as a method for alleviating poverty has been inspired by a belief that the poor need financial services and, more importantly, they have the potential to improve their livelihoods.

Tuinuane savings groups for women promote the “Use Your Talents” as one very important way to alleviate poverty. The groups save their own money and give loans from their own savings. There is no external funding to the groups. Tuinuane helps women to discover their hidden talents. This promotes “Use Your Talents”, skills and local knowledge in development.

Tuinuane promotes the “Use Your Talents” as one very important way to alleviate poverty. This is done by encouraging mobilization of locally available resources, and there is no external funding to groups. The groups save their own money and give loans from their own savings. Helping members through a self-actualization process to identify their hidden talents is part of the training for groups, leaders, and volunteer trainers. This promotes “Use Your Talents”, skills and local knowledge in development.

The project sees itself as a tool which contributes to achieving the twin goals of poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment. Tuinuane groups have brought certain changes to the lives of women. It has enabled women to move from their earlier position of silence to one of gaining voice, reduced their fatalism and has increased their collective bargaining powers. Part of the great success of Tuinuane is hinged on the much-acclaimed slogan “helping people to help themselves”, which has materialized in Tuinuane principles and methodology. This is through mobilizing and training people in groups to cooperate towards a common goal, which is “improved quality of life for all”.

Members have recognized talents as readily available resources that need little or no capital to use to earn income. Through talents, it’s easy to transfer knowledge and skills to other people. Talents are mostly embedded within the culture and people’s traditions, making it easy to practice, especially in groups of people from the same community. Members therefore use their talents in various ways such as: income generating activities, i.e., outside catering, singing, weaving, poultry keeping, livestock rearing, etc.; involvement in community activities, i.e. repairing roads, working on farms, participating in community leadership roles, improving their businesses, supporting church development and motivating/inspiring others to get started.

Tuinuane has inched toward a collaborative society in which the merits of both men and women are understood, valued, respected, and employed. Getting access to savings and credit facility supplies access to financial services tailored to greater livelihood security and enhances ability to utilize un-utilized/underutilized talents.

Basics Model Of The Tuinuane Savings Group

 10-25 members

 Group must elect their leaders (chairlady, treasurer, secretary, and controller).

 Leaders are given training in record keeping, group management, savings and credit.

 Groups are provided with accounting materials, including cash box and record books.

 Weekly meetings with self-determined savings.

 No access to savings till end of business cycle (one year).

 Record keeping and money management is done in weekly meetings.

 Groups have rules and regulations.

 Group must fix and enforce fines for situations such as: lateness, absence, etc.

 Groups have an emergency account (welfare fund).

 Members set their development goals at the beginning of each business cycle.

Being in groups enables women to bring together different ways of thinking, cooperative spirit, gift of learning from each other, patience, empathy, networking abilities, negotiating skills, drive to nurture and educate their children, business connections and the win-win attitude, where each woman wants to witness success in their families and ability to embrace complex social, environmental, and political challenges.

READ

GALATIANS 3:26-28

26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God by believing in Christ. 27 This is because all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. You have put him on as if he were your clothes. 28 There is no Jew or Gentile. There is no slave or free person. There is no male or female. That’s because you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 You who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed. So, you will receive what God has promised.

PRAYER:

Dear loving Christ. Thank You for the value, the equal value that we have in You. Help us to see the wonderful resources You have given us in each other, men and women. Help us to see the value in all our brothers and sisters across the world, without regards to nationality or race. May we view others as You view them. We worship You. Amen.

DISCUSSION:

1. What do you think about the idea that all God’s children are created equal?

2. What can we learn from the Tuinuane groups?

3. In what ways do we practice gender equality in our congregation and our community? What gender equality challenges exist in our congregation and our community?

4. Do we see any new ways to use the resources available in our congregation –related to gender equality?

In what ways do we give space and partner with persons with disabilities in our community?

The “Angel Fellowship” started over 10 years ago as a way of providing fellowship and vocational training for people with disabilities and their families. From this, a professional training center has been established, providing special education and rehabilitation as well as support for parents and caregivers.

The “Angel Fellowship” started in the church where I am a pastor. I am Pastor Wong, and our congregation is made up of a variety of people, including many people with different mental and physical disabilities.

The idea of “Angel Fellowship” can be traced back to 2008. At that time, our team noticed that there were many people in the community who had to stay at home because of their disability. They had few or no friends, were not attending any social activities, were not employed, and were excluded from the community. The loneliness and helplessness of these people and their families deeply grasped our hearts and we wanted to do something to help them. As a result, “Angel Fellowship” for disabled people was formed to help them get vocational training so that they could live a life of self-reliance and of dignity, and to provide a place of belonging for them in the fellowship of the church. In the process of carrying out services for people with disabilities, volunteers from the church become more and more active and have found multiple ways to provide services of support. Many of the people with disabilities have difficulty coming to the church, so volunteers offer transportation.

During these fellowships, some parents of children with disabilities shared about their daily struggles. Because the schools could not give the children the help they needed, they had to stay at home even though a lot of the children did not have any mental disabilities. The parents bore the economic pressure of treatment and rehabilitation in addition to caring for a child with disabilities, which made them physically and emotionally exhausted. To address this situation, we initiated “Home of Angels” (HoA) in 2014, a weekly Saturday school that provided special education and rehabilitation for children with various disabilities and their families. Children attended classes in the morning and rehabilitation training in the afternoon, including physical therapy, art therapy and music therapy. The teachers, staff, and most of the rehabilitation therapists were volunteers from the church. HoA not only provides education for these children, but also the opportunity for them to make friends and have fellowship. Additionally, this arrangement serves as a support group for the parents. They meet up when accompanying their children and can support and encourage each other as well as sharing resources. The physical and emotional pressure on the parents has been greatly reduced, and the HoA has become like a second home for many of these families.

Limited by the venue and resources, the church could only arrange these classes once a week, which was far less than what was needed. Therefore, I gathered my team and we started to raise money in 2016 for a more professional training center. Two years of hard work and fundraising resulted in the church being able to finally buy an apartment in 2018 and open a new center for children and parents. Since then, the children have their own daily learning and rehabilitation center open from Monday to Friday. The center can serve 15 children with disabilities. These children who were once locked up at home and thought useless are now dreaming about what they want to be when they grow up: English translators, writers, inventors, computer programmers and graphic designers.

During a special Christmas performance in the church, a little girl with cerebral palsy proudly said to the congregation: “Although I can’t walk, I can do a lot of the things you can do”. With the support of HoA, children have been integrated into regular schools and are enjoying studying with other children.

Over the course of 10 years, with the resources mobilized and volunteers being helped to discover their hidden talents and abilities, the church has been able to support more than 200 people with disabilities and their families. The children attending HoA are growing day by day and there are plans to provide vocational training for older children, giving them the chance to work and earn a living.

READ PROVERBS 3:27

Don’t hold back good from those who are worthy of it. Don’t hold it back when you can help.

PRAYER:

Children have been integrated into regular schools and are enjoying studying with other children

Dear Holy Spirit. Help us to see others as You see them. May we see the value, gifts, abilities, and talents in every person we meet. Help us to identify the resources You have given us and how we can use these together with those disabled, for Your glory. We worship You. Amen.

DISCUSSION:

1. What are your thoughts after having read Proverbs 3:27?

2. How can we work with persons with disabilities to help them see and take the special place they have in the eyes of our Lord?

3. In what ways can we partner with persons with disabilities in our community?

4. What can you do to inspire new partnership with persons with disabilities to serve your community?