post Conference Prayer Day 5

Find Your Voice. . .Break the Chain

Shared Hope International (SHI)
Local Organization
Headquarters Vancouver, WA

Prayer Focus: Women’s Investment Network (WIN) and Villages of Hope 

Domestic: Women served in the Women’s Investment Network Program of SHI are women who have had difficult life experiences such as domestic abuse, childhood abuse from the commercial sex industry, drug addiction and/or time in a correctional facility. These experiences have left the women with low self-esteem and lack of employable skills.
     This nine-month WIN training program, provides opportunity for these women to learn job skills so they can enter/reenter the work force and support themselves and their families. In addition to job skills, the women learn how to work in a professional environment and develop personal life skills so they can begin to build confidence and self-esteem.
     The program is based in Vancouver, Washington where SHI has its corporate headquarters. Women in the program commit 20-25 hours a week to train on-site and are provided a stipend to offset expenses. The WIN training program is divided into three phases. With each phase, the intern’s skills are assessed and goals set so the intern receives a well-rounded experience.
Pray that the women coming into the WIN Program will stick it out and be successful in their recovery. Pray that all there will see their need for Jesus and call out to Him. Pray that God would continue to bless this program financially and that it would continue to receivegovernmental favor.

International:
     The WIN International program focuses on developing small businesses around the world, either independently or with international partners that provide training and permanent work for the women in Homes of Hope and beyond. Because poverty is a major cause of women being trafficked into sexual slavery, providing victims with skills and a means of creating their own economic sustainability helps remove the risk of re-victimization.
     Today, SHI has active WIN International programs in South Africa, India, and Fiji. Operating businesses include commercial bakeries, hospitality center, florist, toilet paper factories, administrative/IT centers and more.


Fiji
     At their Home of Hope, Fiji, SHI has established a home ownership program that they hope to employ at all of their Homes of Hope. This program allows women and mothers to purchase a one-bedroom “bure” or cottage. All women have participated in the restorative program for at least one year before being presented this option. Much like buying a first home, they will be required to make monthly home equity payments—interest free—that will be put into a bank account specifically for each woman's use upon her eventual departure from the Home of Hope.
     Beautiful, scenic Fiji is a well-known tourist destination, but its young women have sadly become a part of its international appeal. Sex tourists' demand for younger children is increasing, along with the threat to vulnerable children such as those born to trafficked mothers.
     In 2003, SHI partnered with a local couple to purchase 40 acres for a new Village of Hope facility that would care for trafficked women and their children. The facility has the capacity to care for over 200 women and their children. To offer opportunity to these women and children, the Village of Hope is fully equipped with a preschool, grade school, and a bakery where women can gain business training and skills through the WIN program
Pray that Village of Hope Fiji would be a thriving outreach in this community and that many women and children would be rescued and restored and that human trafficking would be prevented as these women receive business training and job skills through the WIN Program.



India
     Impoverished youth are often trafficked and lured into the brothels of Bombay, India. SHI began its work in Bombay by spreading awareness about the horrible conditions of life in the brothels to those at-risk. They also built a Village of Hope to which victims could flee and live.
     The Village of Hope in India is a 72-acre, village style development, located two hours north of Bombay. It has capacity to house more than 140 woman and children at a time. The complex houses vocational facilities, and offers a variety of options for economic development through the WIN program such as leather making, jewelry design and tailoring.
     Some of the rescued women, like Ganga, are now intervening in the brothel district, leading SHI's efforts to help rescue other young women and children. Through them, SHI has launched a Mobile HIV/Aids Clinic, and a Mobile Food Van, staffed by an outreach team of Teen Challenge graduates.
     The Mobile Food Van serves nourishing meals to more than 2,000 people annually in and near the brothels of Bombay. For many victimized and homeless children, the Mobile Food Van program is a first contact with Shared Hope partners in Bombay, and this relationship has often led many of these children to our Home of Hope.
     At the Village of Hope, India, women and children rescued from trafficking not only find a home, but also a future. Each year, these women create leather products and precious stone jewelry, and sell their work to help contribute to their community and toward their own future. In 2006, we discovered a successful clothing designer and tailor, who is devoting herself to teaching these women how to sew and market their uniquely designed clothing.
Pray that Village of Hope India will be protected from the enemy and that the government will continue to give favor to this complex and those operating it. Pray for more Teen Challenge graduates and other workers to come to love and encourage the women and children that living in the complex. Pray that they all see their need for Jesus and come to know Him as their Lord and Savior. Pray that those who have suffered from being victimized by human trafficking be restored. Thank God for this haven of safety that stands as a light in the darkness.


South Africa
     The Village of Hope, South Africa continuously receives new girls rescued off the streets. Gangs, drugs, violence and poverty plague South Africa, particularly Cape Town where SHI has a Home of Hope. Many youth are victimized by rape, forced drug-addiction and abuse. Gangs often use young girls as drug couriers and prostitutes. Young boys are often pimped out to sex tourists traveling to Cape Town for that very purpose.
     At Village of Hope, these victims are brought into a community where they spend an initial 14 months or more weaning their bodies off of drugs and undergoing intensive rehabilitation. After this initial phase, women are given the dignified titles of “Junior Staff,” and are entrusted with responsibilities such as office support, serving as house mothers, teachers and bakery workers.
     The Village runs out of an old farmhouse purchased and remodeled by SHI to house up to 25 individuals. The Village also has an education center and commercial bakery. Some students continue on with competitive education. Others, after gaining work skills at the bakery through the WIN program, join the workforce in Cape Town. Others become a powerful voice, speaking out in public schools against trafficking and gang abuse.
Pray that Village of Hope South Africa will stand firm in serving this community of young girls rescued off of the streets. Pray that God will restore them and renew them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Pray that the 25 in recovery now will be totally set free from addictions. Pray for the workers and the victims that they will accept Jesus as their Savior. Pray a blessing on this Home of Hope and that it would continue to be used to bring hope to this area.