Sometimes giving the perfect gift is more fun than receiving and unwrapping a gift, right? Do you know that feeling of knowing just the right gift for someone, and being in the position to get it for them? It’s exciting!
This excitement of giving is right at the center of our Small Business Fund (SBF) program. Spirit in Action gives grants of $150 to families to start a small business and then this family is called to “pay-it-forward” to another family. They get a chance to be the givers in their community and share their success with someone else in need. This passes on the prosperity and the excitement!
Lackson Lungu, one of the youth business leaders in Manyamula Village, Malawi, recently got to experience this joyful moment of Sharing the Gift. In January 2013 he and his family used their SBF grant to buy two piglets. Lackson, age 20, took charge in caring for them, building them a pen, and giving them necessary medications. And this year his diligence was rewarded with the birth of six piglets!
Knowing about the Sharing the Gift initiative and being grateful for the six healthy piglets, Lackson decided to give one of the piglets to Tionenji Mumba, a widow in the community. This is just one example of how a gift can ripple out to help many more than the original gift recipient! Thank you for passing it on, Lackson!
Another ripple is happening in Manyamula. Last month I sent a book from the SIA office, The Small Scale Pork Producer, to Canaan Gondwe, the SBF Coordinator in Malawi. Canaan has long been an advocate for pig farming in rural Malawi and so I knew that he could put the book to good use. I had the joy of sending him a present I knew would help others.
True to Canaan’s spirit of Sharing the Gift in all aspects of his life, he is taking the information from the book to share it with many more people. “The [Manyamula Savings and Loans] cooperative management will arrange for training sessions for pork producers and tackle relevant topics so that we maximize the productivity of swine. At the moment, the leadership will take time to read the booklet and mark all relevant topics for training. Thank you for the book.”
It’s good to see the spirit of giving alive and thriving in Spirit in Action!