Mothers Against Poverty (MAP)

Christina is a young widow.

Her husband died and the village elders wanted her to marry a very old man so she ran away at night.  She had married  around 14 years of age and had never lived alone and had never been to school.  She did not know how to read or write.  Fortunately a kind person picked her up on the road and told her about a place that helped young women like Christina.  When she got to Neema Village and told us her story and we knew we had to help this young woman.  She lived in our MAP houses for almost a year, she took sewing classes, computer classes, business classes, bible classes and of course reading and writing classes.  It was a great day when she walked up to the office at Neema Village and wanted to show us how she could read!

After finishing her classes at Neema Village, she was ready to start a business.   She decided she wanted to open a Shuka business, (African Fabrics).  Neema Village gave her the money to buy her product and open her business.  She is doing well and her shop is one of our volunteers favorite MAP businesses to visit.  

Charity loves to sing.

She was a teenager living at home when an acquaintance of her parents picked her up to go for a job interview.  Instead he took her to a field.  When she told her parents she was pregnant, they kicked her out.  She was desperate with no home and began begging the neighbors to wash their clothes so she would have some money to buy food.  When the baby was born she realized something was very wrong, the baby was special needs.  Many Africans think you are cursed if you have a special needs baby.

One day we had gone to a MAP shop to visit another mom we had set up in a juice business when a young woman ran into the shop carrying a baby.  It was Charity and she had heard we were in the area and ran almost 2 miles carrying a large special needs baby just to see us.  She was breathless and sweating but asked please if we could help her.  We put her in the car to take her back to her small one room apartment and were shocked at how far she had had run to find us.  

Charity has three successful businesses, a charcoal business, a small food store and a sewing business.  She has been a great success.  We love to take volunteers to her shop so they can hear her sing about how good God has been to her.  

 

Through our MAP program, Neema Village has now set up over 150 women in small businesses just like Christina and Charity.  This is not a loan program, the businesses are given free of charge from Christian women who want to help. You can read all the women’s stories on the MAP Stories page.  Just have a box of kleenex handy.  

“When you lift an African woman from poverty you not only change her world you change ours.”


Purpose of the Program

To provide eligible women the opportunity to become self-sufficient through entrepreneurial opportunities which include education, training, technical assistance, spiritual guidance & access to funding. To qualify for the program the woman must have at least one small child, or be a widow.  She will not have a man providing support for her or living in her house.    The Director of MAP decides if a mom fits the MAP program. 

Rationale for the Program

Women make up 70% of 2.5 billion people worldwide who live on less than $2 day. Unfortunately because of their poverty, these women are more vulnerable to forced labor, malnutrition, high maternal mortality rate, high infant mortality rate and violence. The greatest challenge facing these women is not a lack of motivation but a lack of access to financial education and financial services.  Very few people can lift themselves from extreme poverty without help.  The answer to poverty is a good job.  

Advantages of the Program

Through the MAP project at Neema Village, women receive help, guidance, counseling, and financial services so that they can work their way out of poverty and provide income for themselves & their families. As a result, women can provide better nutrition and improved living conditions for their families and also pay for their children’s education. Through the MAP Project, the women will not only transform their lives but also the lives of their families, also positively impacting their community.  

Women are the key to changing Africa.  We believe women who have been abused and abandoned are not the problem.  They are the solution.

“If hard work made you a millionaire, all African women would be millionaires.”

Outreach to Women in Maasai Villages

In addition to helping the local mothers and widows at Neema, the women who live out in rural Maasai villages are also welcome to come for a similar opportunity. They can come learn a trait such as sewing and we will guide them in becoming financially sustainable.

MAP Director

In November 2018, Neema Village hired Anna Kimambo to direct the MAP program.  Anna is a Tanzanian business woman operating her own day care in Arusha.  Compassionate, yet careful, as a Tanzanian woman, she adds a needed dynamic to the MAP program.

How To Help

If you would like to help our mothers become self-sufficient, please donate to the Outreach fund. For tax deduction purposes, please do not include individual or business names. Please only specify that your donation is for the MAP program.

IRS Rules:  You cannot make your donation to a specific mom or specific business and receive a tax deduction. You must only donate to the Outreach  program and on the purpose line of the donate page put “Outreach.” Let the director know if you wish to follow a specific mom.

The costs of businesses varies with each business and each mom.  Some moms come to us with nothing, they have no beds, no stoves, just the clothes on their backs.  After staying at Neema Village’s MAP Houses for a few months, receiving counseling, spiritual guidance and financial training they are ready to move out and begin their lives and businesses.  We support the moms for 12 months while they are getting their businesses going.  When they leave they may have to buy a bed, stove, utensils to cook with, etc.   Neema Village, through God’s Grace and your donations, buys those needed items for them as they begin their new lives.   We appreciate your help in lifting these women out of poverty. 

Please designate one of these four funds for your donations.

  1. General Funds – Includes Sponsorships and all funds necessary for operations .
  2. Outreach Funds – Includes MAP, STM, food, medical, water well drilling, education and other outreach projects.
  3. Property Development – Includes buildings (please name the building) roads, land purchases.
  4. Volunteer Expenses – Paid exclusively by volunteers for their living expenses at Neema.
  5. Legasy Fund – To insure the future of Neema Village.

For information purposes only: Estimated Costs of Businesses.   Donations made to Outreach.  

  • Chicken Business $495
  • Vegetable Business $463.
  • Sewing business $476.
  • Beauty School $500
  • Beauty Salon $1,200
  • Used Clothing Store $1,500
  • Charcoal Business $300
  • Small Items Store $1,000
  • Cow/Milk $700 – $900
  • Shoe Business $150
  • Honey/Bee (4 hives) $320
  • Small Cafe with food $500
  • Juice Bar/Internet $1,000
  • Goat Business (5) $375
  • The Average business cost about $600 but please remember you cannot donate to a specific mom or business if you need a tax deduction from the US government.  You must donate to the MAP program under Outreach.  

Neema’s MAP program is all about moms and babies!

Eva has a wonderful hair styling business and when you visit her shop you can see her bible open to read anytime she has free time to read.

 

MAP Mothers Stories

Tap to read a story

Mariam

Mariam has a two-year-old baby named Genesis.  Her father has two wives, her mother left the home and the second wife was mean and fought with Mariam so the father kicked Mariam out.  She had finished primary school, about 6th grade but her father said he had no money for her to continue on to … Continued

Evelyn

For someone who has already been through so much in life, Evelyn is only 21 years old.  She has a baby and she also has “the sickness.”  She inherited the disease from her parents both of whom have died.   After their deaths she was living with a friend who saw her taking her medicine one … Continued

Mama Murshidu

Mama Murshidu African women are often called by the name of their first born child.   Mama Murshidu has two children, a two year old and Murshidu her first born who is 5 years old.  Murshidu was born with special needs and as so often happens in Tanzania, the father ran away.  The men believe it … Continued

Rose (Success)

Rose (Success) Even though Malaria is easily treatable, the mosquito still affects many people in Africa.  Rose’s husband became ill with malaria and became mentally unstable and physically abusive to his young wife, even after she became pregnant with their first baby.  Rose was living in the slum area where we visit often from Neema … Continued

Salma

SALMA’S STORY. Salma is 44yrs old. a widow and a mother of four children, a 23yr old boy, 16yr old twins and a 10yr old boy. The oldest and the youngest boys are both special needs. Salma was married to an alcoholic man , who was not supporting his family in any way, Salma was … Continued

See all MAP Stories
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27 (NIV)