Handspun Hope envisions entire communities freed from poverty.

We pursue this by reaching out to the most vulnerable people in Rwanda and creating environments where they are empowered to live out their full potential at work, home and in their spiritual lives.

As you learn more about us, you will see how God uses those who step out in faith to grow His Kingdom beyond our wildest expectations. Lives are being changed forever, our territory continues to expand and the number of Rwandans experiencing the limitless love of Christ is growing. Join us as we answer God's call to care for the widow and orphan.

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“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

James 1:27

Our Mission

Handspun Hope, Inc. is a Christian organization providing holistic support to Africa's poorest through job creation, community building and spiritual counsel.

Our Motivation

We believe Jesus Christ is the "True Vine" and the ultimate source for hope and healing in a broken world. Because Jesus loved the poor, so we as Christians seek to serve the most vulnerable in Africa and hope to see them transformed through their faith so they may bear fruit.

Our Vision

Handspun Hope envisions Africa's most vulnerable people transformed into healthy, prosperous and collaborative communities of social change through Jesus Christ.

Empowerment

Handspun Hopes believes empowerment, chiefly through vulnerable women, is a central principle for reducing poverty and improving the health and well being of children and communities.

Sustainability

Handspun Hope believes that equipping, educating and employing are key facets in helping impoverished individuals find sustainable solutions to poverty.

Creativity

Handspun Hope believes that identifying and fostering creativity is crucial for continued economic growth and social change in Africa.

Collaboration

Handspun Hope believes that successful social enterprises require collaboration. This includes engaging a variety of people in public and private sectors, entrepreneurs and laborers and people of all ages and genders.

Our Story

The Need

There is no question in today's world that too many people live in abject poverty, lacking basic life essentials such as food, shelter, clean water, healthcare and education. Almost half the world lives on less than $2.50 USD per day. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to one third of the world's poverty-stricken rural people, and the numbers are growing.

The Call to Action

In 2002, Handspun Hope’s Executive Director and Founder, Diana Wiley, heard a presentation in her church from an African hospital worker who shared a glimpse of the poverty situation in certain parts of Africa. Diana made the decision to go and make a difference. She believed she could find a way to use her gifts and skills to help those suffering in Africa to overcome the trappings of poverty.

Diana began working with US teams to better equip a hospital in Mozambique. Five years later, Diana learned of the tragic history of Rwanda and the horrific violence that occurred to Rwandan women during the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. The country had suffered a total loss of infrastructure which prevented many Rwandans from being able to work. She felt it was time to move the work of Handspun Hope to Rwanda.

The Solution

In most African cultures, women have immense influence in family and community life. If a woman is educated and empowered, she will mostly likely commit her time, money and skills to educating her children and her community members. Women are an important piece of the development puzzle. It is for this reason that our current focus reaches out to the most vulnerable women in Rwandan communities.

Handspun Hope was officially formed in 2007 and works hand-in-hand with local churches, organizations and leadership to create sustainable enterprise for the most vulnerable women in northern Rwanda.

About Rwanda

Post-colonial Rwanda was shaped by the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Standing as one of the swiftest episodes of mass murder the world has seen, nearly one million Rwandans were killed in a 100-day period. The aftermath of the genocide resulted in not only a massive loss of life, but the complete decimation of national infrastructure. In 1994, no schools, hospitals, factories or government departments were functioning. Rwanda's new government was faced with the tremendous task of stabilizing the country and rebuilding it.

In spite of this massive restructuring task, Rwanda has made significant development economically and socially, yet the need for recovery at all levels of society and in the hearts of the Rwandan people remains.

Today, 28 years after the genocide, the socioeconomic impact of those horrific 100 days still lingers. Hutu militia raped Tutsi women in a deliberate plan to use HIV/AIDS as a weapon - one that would go on killing long after the genocide ended. An estimated 11% of all women and girls living in Rwanda at the time of the genocide were victims of this concerted rape campaign. As a direct result of the death and violence in 1994, there are more than 600,000 widows living in Rwanda.

Rwanda is a small country, roughly the size of Maryland, with approximately 10 million inhabitants. There are 4.2 million children in Rwanda - 700,000 are orphans and 27,000 of those are living with HIV/AIDS.

Now is a critical time to move forward economically and socially in Rwanda to care for those still suffering from the devastating effects of the genocide and to ensure this violence never happens again.