Providing a Hand Up in Moldova

The days leading up to Friday, May 10 are full of opportunity for the wonderful people of Eugene, Oregon (and you!) to reach out to and empower the people of Moldova.

Why Moldova?  It's the materially poorest country in Europe.  It has one of the highest rates of human trafficking and alcoholism in the world.  The average per capita income is less than 10% what it is in the United States (not 10% less - less than 10%!).

The Moldovan people are not looking for hand outs, they're looking for hand ups.  They are proud, hardworking people who deserve our respect, not our pity.

Some very generous people in Eugene have come together to donate various pieces of art for you to enjoy and purchase to support microfinance in Moldova.  There are also two events in downtown Eugene on Friday, May 10 to which you are warmly welcomed - a midday luncheon and an evening community reception.  Look to the right of this article if you'd like to buy a ticket to the luncheon, purchase a raffle ticket for a beautiful bronze grizzly bear, or get more information on how to meet the folks from Moldova who will be in Eugene for this event.

If you can't attend but would like to make a tax-deductible donation to PEER Servants, 100% of which will support Moldovan microfinance, then look to the left of this article for a secure online means to give.  If you prefer to give via check, you can do so by making the check out to "PEER Servants" and mailing it to PEER Servants, PO Box 258, Woburn, MA  01801 with a note stating "Moldovan microfinance".  In either case, you will get a tax receipt from PEER Servants and deep appreciation from the Moldovan people.

Thanks, Eugene!  We hope you will be blessed as you are blessings others.

Vasile Popan, Sausage Maker

Not that long ago, Vasile Popan was suffering the scars of the Soviet era.  Out of work with very little employment opportunities, the outlook was dim.

Since Vasile couldn't find a job, he decided to create one.  He heard of a local microfinance institution making $300 loans available.  He decided to use it to buy pigs, butcher them, and sell the pork in the market.  Vasile did well enough to repay the loan and save some to build the business.

Build the business he did.  And Vasile's stellar loan repayment qualified him for larger and larger loans at the local microfinance institution.  He eventually transitioned his business into manufacturing sausage.  He was wholesaling his product, and the quality was so high and the product so much in demand that shortly thereafter he opened his own retail shops selling his brand of sausage.

Vasile has created dozens of jobs along the way.  He has donated countless pounds of sausages to local orphanages so that children could get some protein in their diet.  He has been very generous to his church.

Invest Credit was with Vasile from the first day the business idea entered his mind, and they have been with him ever since.  Eventually they made thousands of dollars available to allow him to get state-of-the-art sausage making equipment.  Invest Credit was one of the means through which Vasile went from being a receiver, dependent on those around him, to a giver, extending transformation into the lives of others.