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JustHope JustHope Creating global partnerships that combat extreme poverty and nurture sustainable community.
  • About
    • What We Do
    • Our Mission
    • Our Story
    • Our Core Values
    • Our Strategies
    • Who We Are
    • About Nicaragua
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Annual Report
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Programs
      • Health
      • Education
        • Cultural Center
      • Social Enterprise
      • Agriculture
      • Program Map
    • Partners
      • Nicaraguan Partners
      • Service-Learning Partners
      • Community Partners
      • Faith-Based Partners
      • JustHope Companions
    • Trips
      • Frequently Asked Questions
      • Upcoming Trips
        • List by Date
      • Trip Reflections
  • News
    • Latest Project and Partner News
    • Subscribe
  • Donate/Shop
    • Donate
    • Building Tomorrow Together
    • Backpacks
    • Store
      • Shopping Cart

Social Enterprise

Jump to...

Accomplish­ments Projects

Creating jobs and opportunities for economic development is the primary way that JustHope lives into our mission of "combating extreme poverty." We believe that every person has a right to work, and our experience shows that meaningful work not only helps people meet basic needs, it increases one's sense of dignity.

JustHope’s Social Enterprise programs focus on creating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation that cultivates inclusive and diversified economies in our partner communities. We do this primarily through supporting small business ventures and through microcredit lending banks.

In 2018, JustHope...

  • Maintained 14 microbanks, providing loans to 157 people.
    clipart of a building with pillars and a dollar sign
  • clipart of a store front with large display window

    Supported the Chacraseca Hardware Store in serving an average of 200 people per week.

    ...And the La Flor Community Store.

  • Kept the Stitching Hope Cooperative going, employing 5 women.
    clipart of a woman in a dress holding a briefcase
  • clipart of a pitcher
    Sold Nicaraguan artisan goods, such as pottery by the Lopez Family and Stitching Hope items, at events in the U.S.

Our Social Enterprise Projects

Microcredit for Women's Enterprises

Women in Nicaragua cannot access traditional loans without presenting significant assets for collateral and, traditionally, Nicaraguan women do not own such assets. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for them to get seed capital to start their own businesses and supplemental capital to continue to grow them. JustHope’s Microcredit Coordinator explains, “What we want is that women have the resources to live their lives without depending on other people.”

Read more ...

Dreaming Together Hardware and General Store

Sonañdo Juntos Ferretería y Tienda

June 2020

In 2010, 30 women in our microcredit program approached us with a new dream – a hardware store in Chacraseca. JustHope funded the building with a $10,000 donation and the store inventory with a $6,000 interest-free loan. All the women signed the note, and Ferretería Soñando Juntos (Dreaming Together Hardware Store) opened, aptly named for representing big dreams for a small but mighty group of women.

Read more ...

Stitching Hope

Stitching Hope is a women's fabric art and sewing cooperative in Chacraseca, Nicaragua. In 2011, a group of creative women, in partnership with JustHope and the founding partner, Federated Church of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, began developing the enterprise.

Read more ...

Coffee Microfinance Project

With help from SpiritBank and DoubleShot Coffee, this project raised the funds needed to start a microbank in La Flor, a small, coffee-farming community in the mountains of central Nicaragua. Access to the loans made available by this new microbank enable small-scale coffee farmers to prepare their coffee fields for the coming season without having to engage a loan shark (which is often the only option for small farmers).

Microcredit: The Lopez Family Potters

Three members of the Lopez family gather around their domed, brick kiln

JustHope has been visiting the potters' village, San Juan de Oriente, for several years. Over these years, a friendship and partnersip was formed with the Lopez family potters, Cándida, Fanor, Isaias, and Leandro.

Read more ...

A Tractor to Share

A group of 270 farmers from the furthest sectors in Chacraseca sent representatives to us with an urgent request to help them buy a new tractor.

At that time their only option for getting their fields ready to plant was to rent a tractor from someone in a nearby community, which is expensive, and they have to wait in a long line, often meaning they can't get their crops planted in time for the short spring growing season.

Read more ...

La Flor Community Store

La Flor means "the flower" and the beauty of the area is true to the name. La Flor is a small community of farming and coffee-picking families, all of whom live on less than $2 per day. Situated at the top of a mountain in Nicaragua’s cloud forest, there is no vehicle access, making life in La Flor a challenge.

Read more ...

Subcategories

Fostering cultural understanding by creating mutually beneficial partnerships between communities in the U.S. and Nicaragua.

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JustHope
PO Box 4542, Tulsa OK 74159
office@justhope.org
918-932-3209

© JustHope, Inc.

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