“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Igreja Evangelica Menonita Em Angola (IEMA) has taken this to heart with a lending project to promote small business for widows and abandoned women in their community.

During a meeting of IEMA’s executive committee, the women’s department raised concerns about struggling women in four provinces where the church operates: Luanda, Uige, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul.

The leaders decided to provide capital assist women to develop small businesses for their ongoing sources of income.

To support the project, the Mennonite World Conference member church received a Global Church Sharing Fund grant of $10 000.

Recognizing economic disparity that accompanies our diverse global Anabaptist family, the Global Church Sharing Fund aims to meet the needs of some with the surplus of others, as in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15.

“Within the mosaic of the global family, our members have different resources and needs. Through the Global Church Sharing fund, we seek to share with each other and turn our differences into beauty,” says Tigist Tesfaye, MWC Deacons Commission secretary. 

Over two project periods, IEMA gave a loan of US$50 to 160 women each. “Some of the women wanted to start a productive activity for the first time, others were already engaged in various activities but whose business failed due to lack of capital,” says Emanuel NGOMBO MATANU, project manager.

The project provided entrepreneurial training and monitoring to empower women to carry out their activities and to reduce their poverty.

About 70% of the women were able to repay the loan within several months. “The women who returned the money claimed they can now continue their business,” says Rev. Makanimpovi Sebastião Sikonda, a IEMA leader who serves on MWC’s General Council. Some 10% did not follow up at all.

“Physical and spiritual needs are interconnected,” says Tigist Tesfaye. “We are pleased to support IEMA in caring for their own members through this project to equip vulnerable women to increase their income.”

Applications to the Global Church Sharing Fund must be endorsed the national MWC member church. Grant recipients in 2023 include support for completing construction of a guest house for the Mennonite church in Ghana; translation of John D Roth’s book Stories: How Mennonites came to be into Portuguese in Brazil; support for a regional fellowship gathering of Anabaptist leaders from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela; and emergency funding for natural disaster response in Malawi and Kenya.

About MWC member church IEMA

In 2024, IEMA reported a total of 45 congregations with 11,672 baptized members in 2024. There have been Mennonite churches in Angola since the 1980s, largely stemming from Angolan refugees who encountered Mennonite ministries in DR Congo. They have a primary and secondary school in Rocha Pinto and Cacuaco (Luanda).

How can you pray for IEMA

The resource-rich country became independent of colonial rule in 1975 but decades long civil war followed. The country has become politically stable since 2002, but economic and social inequality continue to divide the population. Droughts and excess rain events challenge rural and subsistence farmers’ survival. Pray that the church may be equipped and encouraged to share the hope of Jesus while helping to meet daily needs.

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