Investment and Parable of Talents

2. Investment and Parable of Talents • Each According to His Ability • We all have abilities • Liberating message for the poor • Start Small • Well done Good and Faithful Servant… • Use all your talents • Take Risks • Don’t bury your talents.

3. Handouts are not a long-term solution! • “The rusting hulks of well-intentioned but long forgotten give-aways are scattered all over the Third World.”

4. Five Talents International Anglican Response to World Poverty • Commended at Lambeth Conference, 1998. • First donation made by George Carey, retired Archbishop of Canterbury. • Offices in Vienna, VA and London

5. Five Talents’ Mission Fight Poverty, Create Jobs and Transform Lives by empowering the poor in developing countries using innovative savings and microcredit programs, business training and spiritual development. We do this in partnership with the Anglican Communion to live out the parable of the talents that affirms the dignity of the poor. “Fighting Poverty, Creating Jobs and Transforming Lives!”

6. Projects all over the World • 13 programs on 3 continents, having granted over $2.6 million in loan capital, business training and set-up costs • Worldwide, Five Talents programs serving 30,000 clients (impacting more than 150,000 lives), more than two-thirds of whom are women.

7. Five Talents in Kenya Population 43 million GDP $34.8 billion Poverty rate 50% Christian 80% Muslim 10% AIDS infection 6.2%

8. Thika Community Development Trust • Project of the Anglican Church of Kenya Diocese of Thika • Goal of alleviating poverty through micro-enterprise development • Started in 2003 • Savings led program (ASCA) • Grown to 41 trust groups with 3900 members • $680,000 accumulated savings • $1,300,000 value of loans made • Program being expanded to other dioceses in Kenya

9. Serving the “1K Poor”

10. Teach business basics to micro-entrepreneurs Christian business principles Marketing Record keeping Business planning Entrepreneurial basics Provide foundational grounding in business practices Emphasis on practical skills and application Emphasis on stories, case studies, role playing Business as Mission

11. Eva’s Sugar Shop in the Market Eva and her family run a shop that sells sugar in the market. She is on a street in the market with five other sugar shops. Because they are so close, they all have to sell at the same price, or else no one will buy from them. How can she make her shop better? Eva’s Shop: The shop is plain with just a table and a few chairs behind it. There are some big bags of sugar behind the table. The shop often gets very dusty because Eva does not bother sweeping. She or her children usually sit behind the table, and wait for someone to come to her asking for sugar. Eva has no sign or name for her shop. The market opens at 7 am, but often times she arrives around 9 because she lives far from the market. Sometimes on Tuesdays, she don’t go to the market at all and her shop remains closed. Recently, customers have complained that there is dirt in her sugar, and they feel she is adding dirt so she can sell less sugar for more money. This isn’t true, but because of all the dust it is hard to avoid. She has also begun to lose business to the other five sugar sellers near her in the market. What advice can you give Eva to run a better business that can compete with the other shops?

13. Graduation Day

14. Value Chain Analysis • Special project undertaken at request of TCDT team • Evaluate feasibility of sponsoring chicken broiler production co-op • Identify steps in production, inputs, processes, outputs • Develop financial model to facilitate analysis • Templates built for growing, slaughtering, transporting, etc. • Further consultation available via Skype as requested

16. Church Role “When the Church talks of the poor – it is talking of its own members…….. “Christian institutions are rooted in their communities. They have developed a credible leadership familiar with the needs of the poor, familiar with cultures, histories and contexts of its people. Religious communities approach their development work from a unique perspective that reinforces the moral and ethical values systems of these communities.” (Faith and Development, p. 213)

17. Walk with me….

18. What Can I Do? • Pray • For Five Talents • For clients • For mission teams • Pay • Individual support • Group support • Participate

19. Community TransformationFrom individuals to families to communities

20. A Word from our Animal Friends…

21. His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!’