Emerging from Poverty with Dignity Christian businesspeople recently met at a prayer breakfast where entrepreneurs shared their unique stories filled with a common passion for job creation in Haiti.   Within the network of Haitian Partners for Christian Development (HPCD), business owners of every background—local mentors and mentees, association board members, and micro-entrepreneurs in the “business incubation” program—mingled over some good coffee and conversation, prayer time, and personal stories of transformation.     Guest speaker Evelien de Gier, HPCD Board President and entrepreneur, shared her vision that morning of business as a Christian mission, utilizing the story of Ruth in the Old Testament, a woman who emerged herself and her mother-in-law from poverty with dignity and hard work (Ruth 2).   “Work is a biblical given,” said de Gier.  “So often in our eagerness to help, we feel we have to seek solutions ourselves.  Instead, we end up stealing the dignity of the poor by not allowing them to work toward the solution as well. […] In job creation, we are not handing something, but helping someone.  We’re teaming up.”   Lives being transformed through these shared solutions were showcased as attendees watched a portion of a recent documentary film, created by MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti), which covered the story of each micro-entrepreneur within the HPCD business incubator program in Martissant, one of the roughest districts of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.  One of the incubator entrepreneurs, Heliot Ferodin, also spoke about the ongoing effects job creation will have in that district toward the reduction of gang violence—a tool used by too many as the means to overcome poverty.        That morning, a network of Christian businesspeople found more than just coffee and conversation.  Entrepreneurs of every sector came together and were re-inspired to pursue a shared objective: to close the gap of inequality between the poor and rich in Haiti and “to involve the rich in helping the poor to emerge from poverty.”     HPCD, along with the global network of business affiliates associated with Partners Worldwide, implements events such as this breakfast to forge relationships and live out the mission of Partners Worldwide, to “encourage, equip and connect business and professional people in global partnerships that grow enterprises and create sustainable jobs, transforming the lives of all involved.”      Click here to support the newtwork of Christian business people in Haiti through loans and business training. Type "Haiti" into the special instructions line. Partners Worldwide Homepage