2009: a year in review

From many firsts to some untimely deaths and a few shocking scandals, 2009 was quite a year! This year, America inaugurated the first African American president in our country’s history. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died unexpectedly at age 50. America and the rest of the world experienced the worst economic recession since the 30’s. Slumdog Millionaire surprised everyone and won 8 Oscars. There was a boy that supposedly got lost in a balloon and Tiger Woods definitely had the worst year of his life.

And, while all that was going on, Seed Effect began working alongside the local church and some incredibly resilient and hard-working women in a budding village in a forgotten country where life went on as normal despite all of the firsts, the scandals, and the deaths. This year, Seed Effect launched a microfinance initiative that will bring hope to a community where life as normal means fighting for your life and the lives of your children and struggling to earn enough to pay for malaria treatment, put food on the table, and provide an education for your children that might change their lives and change their definition of normal.

This year, we celebrated another first as we empowered our first group of 19 women with the tools necessary to transform their lives and provide for their families…

One of those women is Sokale Benai, a humble Sudanese store-owner, wife, and mother of 8, who joined a Seed Effect Cell Group called “Mondu Busan” meaning “Waiting for Blessing” and received a micro-loan and business training from Seed Effect. Before the loan, she sold maize flour, beans, onions, and saucepans. With the loan and the education she received from our Training Seminar, she added live lambs along with a variety of breads, sodas, eggs, and rice to her inventory in an effort to diversify the marketplace and meet the needs of her customers. This additional inventory has enabled her to generate more sales, earn a larger profit, and better provide for her family.

Now, as we celebrate 2009 and ring in 2010, we hope you’ll join us in praising God for such an incredible year! What started with a life and impacted a family now has the power to transform a community in the year to come as we turn 19 women into hundreds more. Join us? Plant a Seed. Be a Part of the Seed Effect in 2010.