Small Businesses

“Give a person a fish and they will eat for a day, equip them to fish and they will feed their family for a lifetime.”

Poverty and unemployment are key issues in many Christian communities. This can lead to children missing out on school because they have to go to work from an early age. An impoverished Christian community has difficulty supporting Christian work and outreach, and is weakened in the face of the many pressures from a hostile majority population. Converts from the majority faith in many countries can face special problems finding work.

Each year Barnabas Fund assists a wide variety of small income-generation projects enabling poor Christians to start earning a decent livelihood. Recent examples include market stalls for Christian women in Niger, a bakery, cafe', barber, carpenter and other schemes in Ethiopia, a hairdressing business in Former Soviet Union, beekeeping in Central Asia, recycling in Egypt, Sewing training and equipment in Pakistan, fish breeding, caonstruction work and printing business' in Central Asia.