In the concluding part of this series about the Seed Fund Charles Glass tells of some of the successes in Albania – and a few failures.
Albania
A small mountainous country in the Balkans, Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe, although in the last few years it has become much more open. From within the Newfrontiers family Martyn Dunsford and other UK churches have planted or are planting nine churches, including two in the capital Tirana.
24 businesses – 21 successes
Over the last ten years Seed Fund has helped start 24 businesses. All but three are still trading successfully or have fully repaid their loan. Although the total amount passed by Seed Fund to the country is only just over £14,000, as a result of recycling repaid loans a total of £55,000 has been loaned to businesses. This is of course an efficient use of funds! Rather than charge interest on the loan – which is the normal practice with other microfinance initiatives – we add one extra repayment to the end. Combined, these have successfully covered our write-off costs.
Ten businesses in development
Currently there are ten businesses with open loans. These include two mobile phone shops, a coffee bar, a carpentry business, a tailor, a fruit and vegetable market and a wedding photographer. It is particularly gratifying that many of these businesses are based on individuals’ skills and passions.
What about failure?
Life in countries like this is often tough and uncertain; this heightens the risk of business failure. For example, we supported the youth leader in one of the churches to buy a car to bring vegetables to market to supplement his small income. However, he was recently involved in an accident (fortunately he was unharmed) and the car may not be repairable.
In another situation we helped a lady in the church to buy a sewing machine and start a successful clothes business. The family then hit hard times and her husband, not a church member, forced her to sell the machine so that they could buy food to eat.
In these, and many similar situations we try to support the individuals involved to make a fresh start. This often involves writing off some or all of the outstanding payments, but we believe that our priority is the person rather than the project.
Summary
Andy Amey, a Seedfund team member, recently visited Albania to catch up with the churches and the current Seedfund projects. He commented “We sometimes find in these ex-communist countries that the process of ‘buy – add value – sell – live off the profit’ is not widely understood, but those we work with have a growing understanding of enterprise and are prepared to work hard to see the benefits. They are full of ideas but it is not so easy to develop them when there is so little money in the local economy“
Would you like to invest in advancing the Kingdom?
Often ‘business’ is thought of as remote from ‘church’. I am so grateful to Charles for writing this series. I hope it inspires you.
More funds are always needed to help yet more people to launch a business and have the dignity of ‘standing on their own feet’. If you would like to learn more about Seed Fund, or support businesses which assist both in church planting and uplifting people and communities in need, go to Seedfund.org.uk where you can make a donation.