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Explore how our partners are meeting tangible needs in their communities.
Clean Water
Boreholes bring clean water to people in Malawi
One in 3 people in Malawi don’t have access to clean water. This means 5.6 million Malawian people must walk hours each day to collect water from distant wells, streams, or ponds, bringing home water that often isn’t safe to drink. Waterborne diseases affect countless children and families, impacting their health, education, church participation, and economic opportunities. Deep, solar-powered, borehole wells (“boreholes”) drilled on local church properties allow safe access to clean water, keeping families healthy. The ripple effect of boreholes is significant.
Clean Water
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, groundwater levels are dropping at an alarming rate.
Climate change, improper training, and unsustainable water usage have led to wells running dry, forcing communities to dig deeper or travel farther for water that’s often contaminated.
When communities have access to clean water through sustainable solutions like boreholes:
- Native plants and wildlife thrive as natural water sources are preserved.
- Risk of groundwater contamination from unsafe wells and waste significantly decreases.
- Soil erosion around overtapped water points is reduced.
- Irrigation allows for multiple growing seasons, which can double yearly production—and income!
Every dollar invested in clean water generates $4 in economic returns through improved health, education, and job productivity.
Clean Water
For the first time ever, the rural village of Ngatele in the Northern Region of Malawi has access to clean water, thanks to past Celebration of Hope giving and the work of the local Malawian church.
Previously, nearly 400 Ngatele residents had no access to clean water for drinking, cooking, sanitation, or farming. Women and children would walk miles to collect water from a contaminated stream or pond, leading to illness and other challenges.
With the drilling of the first borehole, the community now enjoys clean, drinkable water straight from an aquifer that runs deep beneath the earth. Lush, green vegetation surrounds the borehole, and nearby, family gardens—planted with vegetable seeds from Celebration of Hope—are thriving.
Clean Water
Our partner in Malawi uses solar power to pump fresh water from a deep borehole …to irrigate over 1,300 banana plants, plus additional seedlings. These plants will produce over $35,000 worth of bananas each year.
As the plants bear fruit, the banana income will be reinvested into the agriculture, leadership training, and clean water programs of our partner.
Sustainability initiatives like this help our partnerships flourish, ensuring they aren’t dependent on outside aid.
Education
Educating girls in India benefits their families-–and the next generation.
In India, 40% of girls drop out of school before completing secondary education.
The transformative power of education is clear: when girls stay in school, child marriage rates drop by 50%, and their future earning potential increases by 20% for each year of schooling completed.
Girls in India must overcome significant barriers in order to get a quality education:
- Girls in school aren’t free to work during the day—and many families rely on their income for survival.
- Girls must often walk for two or three hours to reach the nearest school.
- Many schools lack basic facilities and qualified teachers to provide quality education.
- Cultural pressures push girls toward early marriage—and an end to their educational dreams.
- The cost of uniforms and supplies remains out of reach for many families.
By removing these barriers, more girls receive quality education—and communities thrive. Educated mothers are twice as likely to send their own children to school, and women with secondary education have increased wages and opportunities!
Education
Community schools are often run at local churches or in people’s homes, like you see in front of you, and they help eliminate barriers to education by providing:
- Transportation for rural students that live too far from school.
- School supplies and uniforms for students who can’t afford them.
- Training for teachers, so students get the best possible education.
- School nurses that monitor children’s health and give them a safe person to talk to.
- Meal programs to ensure every child gets a nutritious meal each day.
Your gift to Celebration of Hope helps break the cycle of poverty through education. Every child—and specifically, every girl—deserves the opportunity to learn.
$10
Provides textbooks to a girl who is attending school for the first time.
$2,200
Provides funding for the construction of a classroom.
Education
Puni’s Story
Puni is approaching 70 years old. While growing up in a small village in India, her parents were very poor and needed her to stay home and care for her brothers and sisters while they both worked. When Puni married, she was uneducated and spent all of her time taking care of the home and raising children. Unable to read or write, she spent much of her adult life believing her worth was limited.
In the rural villages of Rajasthan, India, generations of women like Puni have been silenced. But Puni’s gifts were unleashed when she joined a simple literacy program at a local church. Everything changed when she learned to read.
“I’m able to read my Bible with confidence,” she says. “I teach Bible verses to my grandchildren , and I’m not ashamed to participate in church activities.” For the first time in her life, Puni feels equal to her peers.
Since learning to read and write, Puni can advocate for herself in legal matters. She can sign official documents—including a property deed that made her a land owner. “Because I can read these documents by myself,” she adds, “I am less likely to be taken advantage of.”
“Education is breaking barriers,” Puni says. “Women here are discovering that learning gives us equal rights and a voice in society.”
Leadership Development
Training Central American pastors in leadership transforms their communities
Across the developing world, pastors are often the most trusted and influential leaders in their communities, yet up to 90% of these pastors have never received formal training in leadership or community development.
When pastors receive leadership training:
- Churches become catalysts for positive community change.
- Communities develop sustainable solutions to poverty by identifying local resources.
- Leaders mentor the next generation of difference-makers.
- More families move from dependency to dignity.
Each pastor who receives training commits to mentoring 3–4 new leaders, creating a ripple effect of transformation in the community.
Leadership Development
More than 3,000 pastors in Central America are on a waitlist for the leadership training provided by Willow’s partner, Enlace.
Your gift to Celebration of Hope helps move pastors from waitlist to enrollment, so they can become fully trained agents of change in their communities.
$36 provides comprehensive leadership training for one pastor in Central America, impacting more than (1,200) community members.
Pastor Héctor is a dynamic, service-oriented leader and a dedicated church planter in El Salvador. His training with Enlace equipped him to cast vision for his congregation, emphasizing the importance of fulfilling God’s mission by serving their community.
Sister Suya, pastor of Iglesia de Dios in Jardines de Santa Anita, Mexico, has taken on the leadership of the church since the passing of her husband in 2023. Despite the challenges of her role, Sister Suya’s leadership training is evident: she led her community in establishing a children’s feeding program, free-of-charge to disadvantaged families. Next, she dreams of creating a health clinic where the most vulnerable residents of Jardines de Santa Anita can receive free medical care with dignity.
Pastor Nehemías Pacheco, leader of Beerseba Church in Santa Rosa, El Salvador, is deeply committed to the people in his community. In rural El Salvador, poor road conditions often mean long, hazardous commutes for students as they walk or ride buses to school, resulting in poor attendance and higher dropout rates. Pastor Pacheco recently used his Enlace training to lead his community in a road-construction project. Together, they improved the road to El Cafetalito School Center, thus protecting school children during their commute and providing better road infrastructure to everyone in the community—especially vital during the rainy season. Pastor Pacheco brought people together to make these much-needed road repairs, resulting in significantly improving school and town access—and a closer-knit community.
Savings Groups
“Savings groups” fuel small businesses and bring economic stability to communities.
Across Central America and Malawi, our church partners host “savings groups”—small groups of 15–20 people who gather weekly to worship, study the Bible, build community, and save their money together in remote villages where banks are not readily available. Their savings are kept secure by a lockbox, a two-key system, and a detailed ledger.
These circles of support are revolutionizing local economies:
- Members of savings groups save an average of $3–5 per week, a significant portion of their weekly income!
- Groups offer low-interest loans to fellow members.
- On average, 78% of members start or expand their own small businesses.
- People gain financial independence and leadership skills.
- Their communities build financial resilience against economic shock or hardship.
In Central America and Malawi, 570 partner churches have launched 2,918 savings groups, bringing financial stability and security to 43,229 men and women.
$450
Launches one new savings group for 18 adults, deploying a trained leader to a remote area and equipping the group with a lockbox, keys, ledgers, and training manual.
Savings Groups
Ana Ruth’s Story
Ana Ruth Sanchez is from the village of Metalio, El Salvador—a small, Pacific coastal community with high unemployment and frequent droughts. Undaunted by her challenging economic circumstances, Ana Ruth joined the savings group at her local church and is committed to serving others in her church and community through her two businesses. With the money she saves in her group, she is growing her dressmaking company and investing in her tortilla-making business. The savings group equips her to grow her personal income while creating jobs—and economic opportunity—for her neighbors.
Savings Groups
Blanca & Ernesto’s Story
Blanca Abigail Blanco Turcios and her husband, Ernesto, are from the village of Santa Rosa de Lima in eastern El Salvador. Before joining a savings group, Blanca’s income came from selling fruit from a small basket for very little profit, as she walked through the streets of her village. Thanks to the savings group, she saved enough capital to purchase larger quantities of fruit and buy new knives, bags, business signs, and a fruit stand.
Today, Blanca runs a permanent stall in the local market, right next to the elementary school, where long lines of children buy fruit from her each day. Her business has grown so much that Ernesto now works with her full time. Blanca’s savings group is also thriving. This year, two of her fellow group members accepted Christ as the leader of their lives.
Agriculture
Planting a flourishing future
Small-scale farmers grow 70% of the world’s food, yet many farmers lack access to quality seeds that could double or triple their harvests. A single packet of high-quality seeds from Celebration of Hope can transform a family’s future, producing crops that are drought-resistant, more nutritious, and higher yielding. COH seed packs contain non-GMO varieties of seeds that fit their local climate and are regenerative—meaning they’ll produce seeds that can be replanted the following year!
Did you know?
- Having the right varieties of seeds for their climate and conditions can increase a farmer’s income by 50%!
- Non-GMO seed preservation protects biodiversity for generations to come.
- Quality seeds resist pests, disease, and climate challenges like drought.
All of this helps communities experience food security, economies grow stronger, soil health increase, and future generations gain sustainable livelihoods.
$7
Supplies 10 families with seeds for their vegetable gardens.
$35
Equips a farmer with agricultural training.
Agriculture
A Seed of Impact
One envelope of onion seeds can yield 327 onions, which is how many onions are in this pile —a harvest of up to 163 lbs! And each family receives three envelopes of seeds!
See what one seed can do:
One tomato seed = 10–30 lbs of tomatoes
One onion seed = one onion (.5 lb)
One cabbage seed = one cabbage ( 1.5 lbs)
One kale seed = one kale plant with five stocks (1 lb)
Agriculture
Can you imagine how one packet of seeds can change everything for a family?
George Mlenga is a local farmer who worked hard to provide for his young son’s schooling. And even though his son got good grades and was selected to attend secondary school, George was on the verge of pulling his son out of school because he couldn’t afford the school fees, uniform, and supplies needed for secondary education.
But then George received a set of seeds that were packed by Celebration of Hope volunteers—and things started to improve for his family’s financial situation.
George planted and cultivated his packet of onion seeds, and four months later, the sale of his onion harvest paid for his son’s school expenses—a huge relief to George and a life-changing event for his family. “The onion seeds from Willow Creek are of good quality and are most liked by my customers,” George says.
Prison Ministry
Faith-based programs in the Dominican Republic bring hope and transformation to prison inmates.
In the Dominican Republic (DR), prisons are severely overcrowded—often reaching 300% capacity—and 65% of those incarcerated are under the age of 35. To these young people, hope must seem distant.
But transformation is possible—and research from around the world confirms that among incarcerated people who participate in faith-based programs, recidivism rates drop from 65% to just 14%.
Willow’s DR partner Asociación Aguas Vivientes, Inc (AVI) invests in programs that bring hope to incarcerated people. The goal is to involve these men and women in educational opportunities, help them reconnect with family, and connect them with each other. Volunteers who are former inmates become mentors to those who are currently incarcerated.
Prison Ministry
Enmanuel’s Story
Once a governor in San Cristobal, Enmanuel’s life changed dramatically when he survived an assassination attempt. This brush with death led him back to his faith and a powerful new calling: serving those behind bars in the Dominican Republic’s overcrowded prisons.
Today, Pastor Enmanuel’s innovative prison ministry goes beyond traditional support. His holistic approach ensures that every prisoner they serve has:
- Access to basic necessities while incarcerated.
- Counseling and spiritual guidance.
- A church community and pastor waiting to welcome them upon release from prison.
- Support for successful reintegration into society.
The Impact?
Incarcerated individuals who are part of Emmanuel’s prison program demonstrate the lowest recidivism rate upon release, catching the attention of national authorities who now request his program in more prisons across the DR.
God saved my life for a purpose: to show others that change is possible. —Pastor Enmanuel Soriano
Conflict
Jordan’s refugee programs provide relief, healing, and hope
In the war-scarred Middle East, Jordan has become a place of hope. The country, located just across the Jordan River from Israel, hosts more than 3 million refugees who now make up over one-quarter of its population.
A refugee is defined as a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. And even after arriving somewhere safer than the country they fled, refugees face significant challenges:
- 70% of refugees live below the poverty line.
- Children often miss years of schooling because they were on the run or living in refugee camps without adequate schools.
- Trauma, pediatric PTSD, and mental-health needs often go unaddressed.
- Families are often forced to share single-room shelters, where sickness and disease spread more easily.
- Refugees often face limited access to work permits and healthcare, driving them deeper into poverty.
But when refugees receive the support they need, they become vital contributors to their new communities. Sixty percent of refugee-led businesses in Jordan employ other refugees and local citizens, creating economic growth for all. And children who attend the church’s Joy Club hear biblical stories, learn Christian values, and receive instruction in English, Arabic, math, and life skills.
$16
Feeds a refugee family for a month.
$210
Funds an intensive leadership-development program for one young adult.
$300
Covers a year’s tuition for one refugee child to attend the Joy Club.
Conflict
Raising Up Peace Builders
Willow’s partner, The Nazarene Church Network, recently hosted an unprecedented gathering in Cyprus, where more than 70 young leaders from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine came together. With active wars still happening in their respective countries, many viewed each other as enemies. These conflicts had taught them to fear and mistrust each other. But something remarkable happened when these young leaders met face to face.
“I never thought I could sit in the same room as someone from that country, let alone call them my friend,” shared one participant. “Now I see that we share the same dreams for our region—a dream where no one would have to become a refugee.”
By the end of the intensive training, tears of joy flowed as these future leaders of hostile nations embraced a new vision for the Middle East—one of reconciliation, understanding, and shared purpose.
The local church in Jordan is dedicated to raising up a new generation of peace builders. Your above and beyond gift to Celebration of Hope nurtures, trains, and empowers tomorrow’s leaders to choose hope over hate, unity over division, and peace over conflict.
