Flipping the Narrative
“The men will leave... but the women won’t leave. They will die with their children. When you empower the women, you empower the families and their whole community.”
Last week, I was blessed by a visit at our Five Talents office from Archbishop Abraham Yel Nhial. We discussed various ministry projects and areas of collaboration in South Sudan where Five Talents partners with the church in microenterprise development. It was both an inspiring and sobering discussion.
His words cause me to reflect on this Lenten season in preparation of Easter. The Gospels tell us that women were the last to stay at the cross in Christ’s deepest anguish and the first to arrive at the tomb, bearing witness to His resurrection. In these most fragile moments, when hope seemed lost women showed up.
The role of women in the early church was critical to its countercultural outreach and growth. Disregarded and dismissed, women not only found a welcome home amidst the vagabond recruits of the early church, they helped amplify its mission at a seminal time of growth. In a season when infant exposure was a common Roman practice that left female babies to die, women believers were central to the rescue and response of countless abandoned babies.
Fast forward to current times, we are seeing another season of significant growth in Africa. According to a Pew Research study, as of 2020, 30.7% of the world’s Christians live in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa is now home to the largest number of Christians in the world, and that number is growing - fast
Similarly to the context of the first church in the communities, where Five Talents works the church is often the first to respond to human suffering and women are at the heart of this response. Church growth is not just happening with women, but is happening through women. This is also significant as women are the ones who are most affected by many of the drivers of extreme poverty that are tethered to gender inequity. Child marriage, illiteracy, unemployment, human trafficking and gender based violence, all disproportionately affect women. And yet we also see women as powerful agents of change.
A study out of Duke University shows that maternal income boosts family nutrition by four to seven times more than paternal income, and that a mother’s informal income has a 20 times greater impact on child survival than a father’s (Duncan Thomas, Intra-Household Resource Allocation). Simply put, when given agency, women are a multiplier of blessing.
Even more compelling than data and research, however, are the real stories of transformation that reflect God at work. One woman, Leoni, who graduated from a Five Talents Savings Group program through her local church in South Sudan shared the story of her journey,
“I lived on begging from other people because I lost everything during the war in 2016. I depended on food rations from the UN for my family to survive.
When Five Talents mobilized us to form a Savings Group, many people came thinking that they would be given money (right away), but all we received (at first) was an empty box with books and a pen. Some people left the Group, but we persisted and continued to learn and save the little we have together.”
After several months of business training and mentorship led by her Savings Group facilitator and disciplined saving, her group together invested in Leoni with her first loan. She started selling assorted food items around her camp (an internally displaced people camp) where she lived. She quickly developed a loyal customer base.
Through the support of her Savings Group community and the local church, her story changed as both her business and her spirit flourished. Where once she had to plead to others for help, she now is able to provide for her family’s needs and invest and bless others who are in need. Now Leoni shares, “I have been transformed from a beggar to a giver.”
These words fill me with joyful hope that God’s redemptive work consistently flips the expected narrative. I am reminded of His promise in Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
For over twenty years, Elizabeth Kim Ha (Liz) has dedicated her career to the restoration of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, particularly women and children. She has held senior leadership positions at several nonprofit organizations, including Jill’s House, CRU, and the China Institute. Liz joined Five Talents USA in 2019 and assumed the role of CEO in 2023.
Liz is passionate about mobilizing the global church to respond to the harsh realities of extreme poverty in practical and impactful ways. “Our micro-enterprise programs seek to address the issues of an impoverished soul as much as economic empowerment. We desire to bring about holistic flourishing for both the individual and the community.”
Liz also serves on the board of Jill’s House and Designed2Connect, and on the advisory council of American Friends of the Church of the Sudans. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, an enthusiastic world traveler, and a lover of night markets and street food. She lives in Vienna, Virginia, with her husband Eric and their three children
