Hope Missions Ministries was founded by Annie Mkandawire in 2003. While on a prayer drive south of Lilongwe in Malawi, Annie was moved by the spiritual and social condition of the people living in poverty in the rural villages and also the word of God from Romans 12:12–13:
“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Practice hospitality.”
Annie began a series of meetings wit
h Chief Thugwalugwa who heads a small village under Group Village Headman Kayabwa in Traditional Authority Chadza. She wanted to find out from him what the specific needs of his village were and also their hopes and dreams for the future. What she found was that many rural communities are locked in a state of despair, unable to find enough hope to help themselves work their way out of poverty. Hope Missions draws from the significant experience not only of our staff but also of our trustees and other closely related individuals whose combined total experience in operating community programs is well in excess of 60 years. In our first five years of operation we have successfully planted two churches, built three nursery schools, delivered two adult literacy programmes and trained 20 women (and one man) in tailoring and business skills, amongst other less measurable interventions such as mobilisation of community leaders, discipleship and advocacy. In all our work we seek to help communities initiate sustainable change and development for themselves rather than cultivating a culture of dependence. To this end much of the work revolves around people, relationships, eduction and locally available and accessible resources rather than buildings, feeding programmes, cash distributions and imports. If a community’s only resources are its land and people then it is only by helping them utilise these resources in more efficient and effective ways that their development can be self-sustained.
