Project Stories

Dreams Continued.

Imagine loving college, performing well, and wanting nothing more than to continue learning. You pore over your books, stay after to ask professors questions, and would rather have a quiet night reading than going out with friends.

This is Pooja’s story.

Now imagine that the university you attend is unable to provide second-year students like yourself a scholarship to continue your education. You go to ask your parents for help, but your mom works part-time and can’t afford to help. Your dad, though an electrician, struggles with alcoholism and is pretty absent from the family. He spends all his money on alcohol and can’t help you either. Your worst fear comes true: you have to drop out.

This is also Pooja’s story.

However, thanks to our partners in India, her story doesn’t end there.

One of our partners got to know Pooja and her situation. He advocated for her to receive a scholarship through The Hope Venture’s fund for India college students, and Pooja was able to receive the funds and got to go back to school!

Now her wildest dreams can come true: to finish school and work in the government to help improve the lives of her people.

Thanks to everyday people like you and me who choose to give, people like Pooja can continue their education and help make their communities, and even the world, a better place. It matters, thank you!

Where Anushree Lives.

Where Anushree lives, the hills glitter green, the tree leaves stand tall, and wave “hello” to the forest floor below them. Just a third grader, Anushree plays in the grayish-blue Javadi Hills of India.

Where Anushree lives, earning a living as a daily wage laborer is common, with earnings often as low as $2.00 a day. For a family, that amounts to just $60 a month. Access to medical doctors is also rarely available. In her father’s case, a neighbor applied a homemade ointment that resulted in a devastating condition. His foot started to form a rash, then rot. Maggots began to eat away at his flesh, leaving his foot exposed to the bone.

As her father endured this injury, Anushree’s mother became the family’s primary earner. Taking on underpaid caregiving roles, her mom moved to another city away from home to support her family.

These events became quite discouraging for Anushree.

That is until she decided to attend The Hope Venture’s local Tuition Center.

With a sparkle in her eye, Anushree steps into the Tuition Center, her notebook brimming with fresh ideas and a renewed confidence sparked by her teacher’s uplifting encouragement: “You are capable.”

With your immense generosity, we are seeing children like Anushree be supported in some of the most remote areas of the world. Your gift brings opportunity, belonging, and hope.

Where Anushree lives, the palm trees dance, the people laugh and cheer—all for her.

Irene’s Story: Breaking Generational Poverty.

“I want her to have a good education. I want her to live a good life. I want her to do more than me and do great things,” gushed Irene when asked about her and her 5-year-old daughter’s future plans.

Irene is a College Scholarship recipient, and more importantly, our friend.

Born to Maasai peasant farmers, Irene’s large family kept cattle and sold their milk in the nearby villages. “Life was difficult, not everyone needed milk,” she shared. It can be typical in Massai culture for fathers to marry off their daughters for a bride price…typically one or two cows from the wealthiest suitor. This could have been Irene’s fate, had her father not passed away and had she not been put in school by her mother.

In Kenya, women who receive a college degree are more likely to join the workforce, achieve higher earnings, postpone marriage, prioritize their children’s education, and contribute to their communities.

And for the past three months, Irene has done just that! Serving as a primary school teacher, Irene works at the same school where she studied as a young student, setting a new precedent for her daughter’s future.

Remember that educated girls tend to prioritize their children’s education?

It’s because women are more likely to invest their earnings back into their kids, breaking the cycle of poverty.

It’s a story of hope and change. A story of fresh beginnings and greater possibilities.

It’s a story of how one generous donation will impact one girl, one family, and in turn, leave a legacy.

First Click to Empowering Her Future.

The digital age is often linked to smartphones, iPads, and viral TikTok trends. But for over a third of the global population, this is not the reality.

For Jayasree, that was not her reality.

Jayasree’s father, Rajappa, sells clothing door-to-door but struggles to make ends meet, while her mother works as a domestic helper. When Jayasree isn’t in 6th grade, she works with her mom for extra income.

Her happy place?

Learning about computers at school. And this is where it gets tricky, because what happens when the only school computer for all of the children no longer works?

Jayasree learns about computers in theory, but not in practice. That is, until she learned about The Hope Venture’s India Tailoring & Computers Project.

Through your gracious generosity, Jayasree was able to use a computer for the very first time! Through the program, Jayasree is being equipped with practical computer skills that will last her a lifetime.

When asked what Jayasree dreams of becoming one day, she said she wants to “become a medical doctor to help economically challenged people and encourage them to overcome difficulties in life.”

Sounds like one extraordinary purpose if you ask us, and Jayasree’s computer skills will help her get there. Thank you!

Slower, Longer, Healthier.

She wakes up early in the morning, feet hit the floor.

Rubs her eyes, stretches her arms.

She gets up and goes out for her morning walk with her friends, gabbing about what’s new.

They continue walking. One mile. Two. Three. Almost four. They’re finally here.

The cold water rushes before them, a familiar landscape. The warm sun is shining on it now. They bend down and scoop up the water…the muddy, brown, bacteria-filled water that might give them typhoid or cholera later. They fill all their jerry cans and begin the trek back to their village and use this water for all their cooking, cleaning, drinking, living.

This is Janet’s life. For 54 years.

Now, she wakes up in the morning, less early this time. Feet hit the floor. Rubs her eyes, stretches her arms.

She walks about half a mile, turns a handle, and fills her jerry cans at the well that was installed by The Hope Venture and our partners at Nasha Ministries.

The water is clean, and she hasn’t gotten sick with typhoid or cholera. Her kids come with her, and they can go multiple times a day if they need since it’s so close. 

This is Janet’s life. She’s now 62, and has more of the thing we wish we all had: time. Time to spend with her ten children. Time to spend with her husband. Time to spend with her friends.

When you give the gift of water, you’re also giving the gift of a life that can go slower, play longer, and live healthier.

“It Started With a Daily Meal, Now on to Med School.”

We bumbled out of the 15-passenger van and onto the narrow dirt streets that wound through Kalandra, a remote village in South India. As we came around a corner we were greeted by a quickly-forming drumline as the kids from our Feeding and Tutoring Centers raced to greet us.

As the dust settled and the kids led our group on, one young man came up to me. His name was Jana. He told me that he grew up in this village and that he started attending our Feeding Center when he was in 2nd grade. He received a daily meal and tutoring throughout his schooling and excitedly told me he had graduated high school. He told me more kids need an opportunity like he had—so he’s been volunteering as one of the tutors at our center. As we chatted about what was next for him, he motioned for me to follow him. Meandering back through the narrow alley, he took me into a small home.

“Is this your home?” I said. “Yes,” he replied. I asked about his family. He told me his mom looks for different jobs each day and makes about $2/day, his dad—like many of the dads in this community—worked harvesting and cutting coconuts. They didn’t have much to provide for Jana. But then Jana reached back into a little bedroom and pulled out a thick textbook. It was a Med School Exam Prep book. He beamed as he showed it to me and told me he was getting ready to test in May.

The people in Kalandra haven’t had much access to opportunity, but now Jana was on the brink of Med School. His story life has been transformed—and a daily meal with a little tutoring has played a key part in that. A meal for one of these centers costs $.50 and as those little meals add up, lives are brought hope.

A Young Man’s Call.

“If I had not gotten the scholarship, I probably would not have money. Working is not enough. It’s kind of despair. Without the scholarship I would probably have a life in crime and drugs.”

I was sitting with Anthony and his mom in their small, one-room home made of corrugated steel in Mathare, Kenya. Things were cramped, but hope seemed to be present. He was telling me of his journey through school and how he received a college scholarship from The Hope Venture.

The journey started when he had to drop out of high school because he didn’t have enough money to pay the fees. “I had to hustle for some money, assisting a carpenter and making less than $1 a day. Work was inconsistent.” Our partner, Fanuel, would stop by and visit Anthony while he was working, and eventually Fanuel helped Anthony get sponsored so he could finish high school.

But a high school education wasn’t going to be enough…life in Mathare is really hard. It’s the second-largest slum in Kenya, crime is high, and many people don’t have jobs. Anthony’s dad even roams the streets trying to find work, but he often returns empty-handed. As the first-born, Anthony felt the responsibility of not only moving out to make more physical space in their home, but he also felt the call to go out and pursue his purpose.

That purpose is to be a teacher; to get his degree, come back to Mathare, and raise up the next generation of students so they can also pursue a better life for themselves. Thanks to The Hope Venture, our donors, and our partnership with Fanuel, Anthony is able to go after that future with a college scholarship.

Chatting with him I could sense his feeling of responsibility. He himself said that without the scholarship he would probably be in a life of crime and drugs…that’s just reality in Mathare. But because people chose generosity and gave to a scholarship fund, this young man is able to move toward his purpose and improve the lives of others because of it.

Red Bow.

Mariam’s father wasn’t in the picture and her mother struggled with alcoholism. At one point, Mariam and her two younger sisters were renting a room from a landlord, but he got a bucket of hot water, filled it with maggots, and splashed it all over their room. The girls screamed and ran from the home they knew. A school uniform can’t fix that, but it can help Mariam feel a sense of belonging in a life of chaos. Her favorite part of her uniform? The red bow. Proper clothing matters…the $15 donation to provide that uniform mattered.

Our First Recipient.

In 2009, we launched our Backpack Project… the first of over 60 projects in the last 15 years. 

We were in a rock quarry, where our partner Charlie had been burdened by the overwhelming need of the children there. They didn’t have opportunities that other children had. They lived in straw huts in the dust of the quarry, they were dirty, often hungry, and Charlie wanted desperately to do something about it. He wanted them to know they were seen and loved.

A little girl named Gayathri was the first recipient. Little did we know she would go on even past 8th grade, let alone on into college, and amazingly even then go to work for an international company someday.

We were so excited earlier this year, thousands and thousands of backpacks later, to meet back up with Gayatri. We hugged, cried, caught up, and paused to reflect on the small choices that took place one day in 2009 that have led to us both being a part of something so special. Awesome.