Because World Relief emphasizes working thorough local evangelical churches, most often group members are part of the same church. The group meets once a week for six weeks to learn about simple business practices, nutrition and health, stewardship, and how the bank will operate. With the loan some members might purchase flour, oil, and yeast in quantity to begin a bread-baking business. Or, a member might purchase fresh fish to sell in the market, or food staples, or charcoal to sell along the roadside. Step 4 Each week for 16 weeks members meet to make a loan repayment.
Members pay interest at half the commercial rate.
In the past three years World Relief has provided more than 5,000 loans to Mozambican families. Fifty dollars doesn't sound like much to us. Early in the morning the husband and wife mixed flour, water, oil, and yeast in a large galvanized tub. After letting the dough rise for a couple hours the woman took the dough into her mud hut, kneaded it on a piece of white canvas, and shaped it into 120 small loaves which she arranged onto pans. While the loaves were rising, the woman went back outside and built a wood fire on the top of a piece of sheet iron.