DuHope's Spiritual Objective

At DuHope, we are committed to the spiritual growth of our artisans; we acknowledge that a holistic approach must include being attentive to the spiritual needs of the women who have entered our program.

It always puts a smile on my face when I hear our first cohort singing praise songs in their morning devotion time - some tunes are familiar, and I can sing along in English in my head, while they sing in Kinyarwanda. Even though I do not understand the words of the prayers, I can feel the dedication, care, and the strong sense of faith from the women. 

With our new cohort, we are beginning to introduce spiritual teachings into their schedule, with our Spiritual Development Associate, Passy, spending time with them twice a week. Passy shares that she focuses on the growth of our artisans through discipleship - sharing her spiritual gifting with them so generously. Some artisans tell us they have an active prayer life, but others have been distant from their faith for some time. We have also employed an artisan from our first cohort as a peer-worker to support the new women spiritually - someone who has had similar experiences and can speak to what she has learnt on her own spiritual journey. 

Passy has begun with sharing with the women that God created them, God knows them, and God loves them. As time goes on, they will venture into more in depth topics, however, our hope for now is simply that they will know their value and their worth as a child of God. Many, if not all, of the women who are DuHope artisans have faced rejection, discrimination, and oppression from all around them, which understandably takes a toll on a person’s sense of worth. Many women come to DuHope carrying a lot of shame and guilt, and we hope and pray for this to be lifted and for women to stand in the confidence that they are truly incredible, loved, treasured, and priceless creations of God. We see so many examples of Jesus doing this in the Bible - when he embraced women who had been shunned by society, such as the Samaritan woman at the well where He shared the truth of the gospel with her, even though her status carried so much stigma at the time. 

We pray that the burden of stigma that DuHope artisans carry would be lifted, that the weight of their past experiences would feel lighter, filling them with hope in the promise that one day all pain and suffering will cease. May they be empowered to show God’s love to the people in their communities.