Lighting the Path and Making a Difference with Empowerment
We are approaching poverty differently by:
Serving and empowering
Recognizing potentials, meeting needs and giving skills
Changing lives, showing love and sharing God’s Word
Join us and make a difference!
Changing Lives with Empowerment
LTP’s successful empowerment practices include: providing education, training, support for small business start-up
Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
Over half of everyone working in Africa only earn less than $1.25/day (the extreme poverty line) and women represent about 70 % of the world’s poor and earn 23% less than men. At least 30% of women and girls are severely undernourished; half have had cholera or other water-born illnesses; 6% to 30% of women die during pregnancy/childbirth depending on what country they live in and the access to medical care, and fewer than one-fifth of women are given access to education.
Together with the help of people like you we are changing communities, giving dignity and making a better future for generations to come. Lighting the Path is approaching poverty differently by including empowerment. Meeting the needs of food, water, medical care, shelter and education are the necessary starting points. We then include empowerment with education, skills, small business training and supplies to start a small enterprise and earn an income. Every person wants to feel valuable and competent and, if given a chance, will work hard to have a good life. Our vision is to empower people to provide for themselves and their family and to see them flourish and live out their full, God-given potential. To accomplish this vision, we engage and challenge societal norms. We work to alleviate suffering through action oriented work while respecting cultural and personal differences, along with caring for physical and emotional needs.
We have directly empowered over 565 women with skills to start a small enterprise and the knowledge to train others to do the same. The “ripple effect” has been huge and we are seeing more and more women taking their skills and using them to help their family thrive.
We have formed and empowered over 24 women’s associations to work as a combined team of different strengths to make a product and run a sustainable enterprise.
In our newest Giving Hope Project, we have taught over 24 refugee women to sew and make products to start their own small business or gain employment.
The Girls for Girls project provides washable and reusable feminine hygiene kits to girls who have no supplies to deal with her monthly menstrual cycle. We have sent over 650 hygiene kits to schools, clinics and organizations in Zimbabwe, the Congo, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Malawi, Cameroon and Ghana.
We have built and opened a residential technical school for young women which allows them to live in a safe environment and learn skills to run a successful and sustainable small business that will allow them to take care of themselves and have a brighter future. Our first class has been amazingly successful and we have already expanded our enrollment with the completion of a housing building.
innovating for women’s health
addressing Feminine Health needs
Serving Youth in Need of Education
The Tororo Youth project
addressing safety needs
building a Girls home
Empowerment Project
the giving hope project
Serving Girls in need
the TECHNICAL schools project
meeting health needs
The Girls for Girls Project
Lighting the Path was awarded the 2016 Billion Acts of Peace Hero Award for their humanitarian work ending poverty and empowering women. The award was chosen by a panel of 13 Nobel Peace Laureates and presented in Monte Carlo, Monaco by Princess Camilla and Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberto Manchu.
Lighting the Path was awarded the 2016 Hero Award for their work ending Poverty and empowering women. The award was chosen by a panel of 13 Nobel Peace Laureates and presented in Monte Carlo, Monaco by Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberto Manchu.
A Different Philosophy
- We believe that loving compassionate service toward those suffering in the world is what God calls us to do. The answer to this call is expressed as we work to meet the needs which are present when people are living in poverty while sharing God’s Word and showing them Christian love.
- People want a way to use their God-given gifts, not a handout. We always strive to provide education and skill development for someone’s betterment. We work with kindness and respect to insure the dignity and build self-reliance of those we are trying to serve.
- People generally know what will work best for them to be successful. We research the facts, ask and listen to insure we are appropriately meeting the needs of those we are trying to serve in a way they will be able to sustain.
- We fight for those being treated unfairly or neglected. We stand up for and support those who are being denied their rights or being ignored and we encourage acceptance and love through sharing God’s Word and actions.
- We support those who are looked down upon or are foreigners in a new land trying to find their way. We work for better community relations and rules which do not allow anyone to be discriminated against due to gender, race, religion, ability or any other reason.
- We believe our first responsibility is to God, followed by responsibility to our donors and those we serve. We strive to be faithful stewards of our resources, be accountable and utilize all our resources with integrity and transparency for the good of those we are trying to serve and our donor partners.