Well friends, I’ve recently taken a part time position with the non-profit Yobel International. This wasn’t a simple decision, I believe it was over 10 years in the making, and nearly a year in discerning. So, if you would appease me, take a few minutes to read about why I’m taking this leap of faith.
Almost exactly 10 years ago, my mom took me to Chile with a group from our church to help at a home for abused and abandoned girls. I distinctly remember my mom talking about how she wished they could help employ the older girls so they could start making money, gaining experience, and be more likely to graduate from the home with experience to thrive in the real world, instead of just ending up back on the streets and continuing the cycle. It seemed like an off-hand comment at the time, but I’ve never forgotten that concept, and over the past 4 years I’ve been involved with the non-profit Yobel International to help implement this very same idea around the world.
You may primarily know Yobel as a fair trade market. I want to be clear that if it was just a fair trade store I wouldn’t be going on staff with them. There is much to be said about the benefits of fair trade, but the part that is most inspiring to me, and that Yobel really is sharpening their focus on, is their business and entrepreneurial education curriculum, a basic intensive that includes budgets, savings plans, design, marketing, quality control and other concepts that they would otherwise never have the opportunity of acquiring. Yobel has a passion for not creating a business for people, but giving people in poverty stricken areas the tools and confidence to create their own job opportunities with their knowledge of their communities. This helps them feed and educate their families and transform their communities, and does so in a way where the people are given independence, dignity, and hope. As a result, women are ending family lines of prostitution, mothers are giving families hope for children’s futures, and men are ending chronic unemployment, all because they were given a simple education and the inspiration that they are capable. The curriculum is currently changing lives in Pakistan, India, Mexico, Costa Rica,and Uganda, and people in even more countries are hungry to be a part of it. I was able to see it first hand in Costa Rica and Juarez, MX this past year.
I could go on, there are countless awesome stories, but I should probably tell you where I fit in all of this. Yobel is undoubtedly growing, and in order to continue growing they need to add a part time staff member to help with their visual media and marketing in order to maintain and better connect with new partners and their growing supporter base. My skill set is crucial to this next phase of growth for Yobel and will enable Yobel to bring their business training to many more impoverished areas of the world. I’m excited about the opportunity to use my passion for photography and creativity, my education in communications, and my other experiences, to make tangible, sustainable change in the lives of people around the world. I can’t begin to express how honored I am to be a part of something I so strongly believe can change the face of poverty. We can either sit and keep Yobel stagnant where it is, or we can hop on board and invest in growth of Yobel to reach more and more people.
And here we are at the point where I humbly ask for your partnership. I’ll be working at Yobel for 20 hours a week, and in combination with Yobel International I only have to raise 50% of my part-time salary. I just have to get to $520 per month to reach the reasonable pay of $12 an hour, and to me this feels entirely attainable. Just 26 friends supporting me at $20 a month, 11 friends at $50 a month, or just 6 friends at $100 a month would have me more than covered! Then I could spend all of my time investing in the growth of Yobel instead of trying to raise support. Anything I raise beyond my goal will enable me to do even more work for Yobel!
If you’d like to be a part of the story of Yobel and me, but can’t commit to something every month, one-time gifts are of course very welcome. However, reliable monthly gifts best enable me to spend more time focusing on advancing the mission of Yobel instead of searching for additional support on monthly basis. To give, just go to this secure website and fill out your information if you’d like to use your credit card. Or, if you’d prefer to send a check, just mail it to Yobel International, 27 S Sierra Madre Colorado Springs, CO 80903 and put “Mattea Norman Support” in the memo line.
I don’t know the specifics of your current financial situation, but in the words of a friend of ours in Juarez, “no one is so poor that they cannot give.”
Mattea
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
~Micah 6:8 NRSV “In different times and in different ways, our heavenly Father offers us a simple proposition: Follow me beyond what you can control, beyond where your own strength and competencies can take you, and beyond what is affirmed or risked by the crowd — and you will experience me and my power and my wisdom and my love.” (Gary Haugen, Just Courage)
Mattea Does Yobel 