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“Success in work,” said Lusine, “is about trying the impossible to make the possible happen.” Lusine, age 30, has completed a vocational training course in sewing and clothing design with IOCC partner the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Church’s educational center in Gyumri, Armenia – one of the country’s poorest areas – offers vocational training, especially for women, with courses for in-demand occupations like culinary arts, woodworking, cosmetology, and clothing construction and design. Your gifts help IOCC to support this center, which trains 250–300 unemployed women a year. Lusine and Gohar, age 53, recently completed the center’s course on clothing design and construction—using sewing supplies that IOCC has helped to deliver. Armed with their newly acquired skills and a fresh sense of confidence, she and Gohar have both applied for full-time jobs in the garment industry. One day, they hope to open a business together. “It is...

Ein El Hilweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It was established in 1948 by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Since then it has witnessed violent clashes, aerial bombing and years of bloody conflict. Beginning in 2012, the camp’s population swelled from 70,000 to more than 120,000 due to the influx of refugees from Syria. Some of these newcomers were Palestinians who had already been refugees in Syria, now forced to flee a new conflict. In 2016, Lebanese authorities built a wall with watchtowers around the camp. The camp is known for its security problems, due to the disputes between political factions and small arms weaponry circulating in the camp. The clusters of small, grey, concrete houses leaning on one another do little to alleviate the overcrowding in this under-serviced urban camp. Despite these hardships, the residents of this camp have made it their home away...

A $45 loan nearly doubled a family’s income. Here’s how. U Htein Win is a widower; his wife passed away four years ago. Four of the couple’s eight children still live at home; the rest are married and living independently. After his wife’s passing, U Htein became the family’s sole breadwinner. U Htein has his own boat and relies on fishing as a source of income and as a way to add protein to his family’s daily meals. He was making about 3,000 Kyat ($2) each day. He has long wanted to expand into shrimp fishing, but in order to do that he would need special traps. If he were to try to take out a loan to buy the traps, it would be at a 10-15% interest rate that he simply couldn’t afford. His life changed, though, when CWS introduced the concept of a savings group to his village...