Helping Communities To Start Small Businesses

Once immediate physical needs have been met for a community, Bridges focuses on long-term solutions to poverty. Microeconomic programs are market-based programs that provide people with resources to start and maintain their own businesses, allowing them to climb out of poverty.

While many factors like supply, demand, budget constraints and government stability must be considered, the heart of our microeconomic program is freedom and self-sufficiency. A family that doesn’t have to walk miles back and forth for clean water has more time to work toward a sustainable livelihood. The same is true for education and health.

Bridges purpose is to improve the physical health first, but we are also making plans to help create the path for an entrepreneurial spirit to develop. This plan includes the funding for microeconomic ventures and the education and training required to help them flourish.

Entrepreneurship Programs:

• Small business development for needs in the local community – e.g. hardware or convenience stores.

• Fishing program

• Poultry program – provides eggs and meat.

• Livestock program – cows and goats provide one or more families with milk and milk-based products.

• Vegetable co-ops and farms can either feed a community or be sold at the local market.

Facts

• Unemployment is a chronic problem in most of the emerging and underdeveloped countries.
• An emerging country needs entrepreneurs who are competent to perceive new opportunities and are willing to incur the necessary risk in exploiting them.
• A country undergoing extremes of disasters and catastrophes needs to be brought out of the vicious circle of low income and poverty. Entrepreneurship can break this vicious circle.
• Entrepreneurs and helping government can change an emerging country to a developed economy. Entrepreneurs not only give employment to the entrepreneur but also a source of direct and indirect employment for many people in a country.

What We Do

• Empowering people out of poverty
  • In the villages we serve we have established relationships and connected with the people. We held meetings where we encouraged their leaders to think outside the box by coaching, training and empowering people to raise themselves out of poverty.
• Provide seeds for change
  • We provide resources to enable someone with entrepreneurial skills to start their own business. We provided fishing poles, financed purchase of goats and chickens to those who were interested and willing.

Our Impact

• We provided a source of income for some families
• We gave hope to ending the vicious cycle of low income and poverty.

How Can You Help?

• Donate today and help us provide a source of income for one or more families.