Why Start A Chapter?
Joy, pure Joy…. while empowering women in extreme poverty! That’s what happens when you start an iZōsh® Chapter. Women connect intergenerationally around a shared experience. The connection and bond with each other from working on the shared vision is strong.
iZōsh is invitational. It’s an easy ‘ask’ and an easy ‘answer.’ Learning about women’s lives in extreme poverty and then doing something together to help those women absolutely resonates with women of all backgrounds.
iZōsh expands and deepens your understanding of the world. You learn that by going deeper in understanding of the oppression and exploitation that women living in extreme poverty face, you have not only compassion for them, but a way to help: micro-loans! It’s a ‘hand up’ not a ‘hand out.’ And by pooling dollars together it is easy to grant more loans than you would have ever thought possible.
Fun! It is so much fun to vote on and select the women entrepreneurs to receive the loans. Watching a loan be fully funded in real time is an awesome experience!
iZōsh is not a typical fund-raising style of event. First, the focus is on the education and information provided to help you understand the oppression and exploitation in women’s lives. You never suggest an amount to give. You state that any donation to put into a loan is welcome. One dollar is not too small. After all, what seems like a small amount of money to us is HUGE to women who live on less than $2 a day!
Over time you become even more grateful to God for the blessing of being born in North America. This is not a guilt trip, but you come to realize that we, all of us, simply have so much more in comparison to the rest of women in the world. And in that gratitude, iZōsh is an awesome way to give thanks to God. It’s a fun and joyful way to share in a sustainable way!
iZōsh Events are carefully planned in such a way that there is a mixture of inspiration, education and information about hard things faced by women in extreme poverty, participatory discussion of those topics to understand more deeply, voting on who gets the loans, and the joy of celebrating the loans going out in real time. In spite of focusing on hard topics such as poverty and exploitation, the Events are enjoyable and uplifting.
And iZōsh International gives you the tools to make it easy! Simply click on the Starter Kit to submit your application!
MISSION
iZōsh is a group of women dedicated to the economic empowerment of women globally who are living in extreme poverty. By giving micro-loans to these women we help them to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and reduce the risk of oppression and exploitation in their lives.
VISION
Motivated by our Christian faith to be compassionate and to do justice, iZōsh was formed.
Our vision is:
To invite and welcome other women, regardless of their faith or beliefs, whose goals align with our mission, to learn about women’s issues in extreme poverty and then to empower the women living in extreme poverty to transform their lives through entrepreneurial activities.
To honor the dignity of each woman by empowering her through sustainable personal economic development;
To prayerfully pool our resources to invest globally in women living in extreme poverty, regardless of their faith or beliefs; and
To seek first to understand and not to judge.
CHAPTER VALUES
Compassionate
Educational
Committed
Participatory
Invitational
Intergenerational
STATEMENT OF FAITH
iZōsh was created in response to Jesus Christ’s call to serve and care for those who have been oppressed, marginalized, and forgotten; our Christian faith is the foundation on which this organization stands.
WE BELIEVE:
In one eternal God who exists as three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each fully, and equally God.
In God’s only Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary, became fully man, lived a perfect human life, and died on the Cross as payment for our sins.
After His bodily resurrection, He ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.
Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God freely offers salvation and eternal life to anyone who puts their faith in Christ.
HOW TO GET STARTED
Once you apply and are accepted as an iZōsh Chapter, you will be on your way! Our guidance and resources will equip you so that all that is left to do is to pray, find a place to meet, get the word out, and follow the iZōsh Mission & Vision while you connect, learn, give, and celebrate the joy of empowering women in extreme poverty!
First Step: Click on Starter Kit and submit your application today!