Our month of LUV continues with small business ideas to help support LUV’s work!
Have you ever found yourself feeling like you wanted to help more but didn’t know where to begin?
Nellie, from Chicago, has been helping to spread LUV by using her business (and inspiring her grandchildren to give back). Read her inspiring story for local creative ideas you can use to protect and empower those vulnerable to human trafficking in warzones:
LUV COMING OUT OF MY GARAGE
Over seven years ago, I began my own cottage industry of refurbishing and selling dressers as a way to generate income for my family and raise support for the orphans in Sudan and South Sudan. [Visit Petronella-Designs.weebly.com]
What an honor to be able to use my hands to bring beauty, to restore, to transform old dilapidated dressers so that they receive beautiful facelifts. It’s pure joy to have customers come to my home. Pure joy to match a specific dresser to a specific need a customer has and pure joy to share with orphans at-risk to human trafficking!
5% of every dresser sale supports Lift Up the Vulnerable (LUV). Since I began, I’ve been able to refurbish 1,400+ dressers!
In my garage, I have a picture of the kids in South Sudan hanging up so that when my customers and neighbors stop by the image becomes a springboard to explaining more about the ministry.
I have had some people buy from me just because they wanted to support the orphans as well. Others give above and beyond the cost of the furniture in order to send extra to support the most vulnerable. I often direct them to books, a flier, or the website for where to read and learn more. In this simple way, I can be a part of lifting up the vulnerable, here in America, as an ordinary mom and grandma — LUV coming out of my garage!
My granddaughter is also a young entrepreneur and loves these kids too. Recently, I gave her 20 beanie babies to sell at a flea market — she chose to invest the money from her sales into supporting the children in South Sudan. She’s also taken the lead on raising funds through lemonade stands and, one year, we glued a picture of the orphans on to glass jars and distributed them throughout my neighborhood and asked neighbors if they would collect pennies and dimes until the jar was full and then return the jar to us. Most accepted it gladly!
Other fun ideas for kids to raise funds could be yard sales (collecting things from neighbors they don’t want anymore), making bracelets to sell, buying really pretty dresses for young girls at the thrift store for cheap and selling them for more on marketplace, car washes, dog walking, neighborhood babysit night… The creative possibilities are endless for simple steps we can take to impact lives around the world!
None of us can save every child in Sudan, but each of us can do a little bit that can make a big difference! Is there some business, craft, or job you are already doing from which you could commit a percentage of the profit to support these children? Or do you have children, grandchildren that could help? I promise you; YOU will end up being the blessed one!
Over the past weeks we’ve shared several unique ways to spread LUV: from Valentine’s Day gifts, to our exciting Give LUV All Month Campaign, to joining our monthly giving network, The LUV Collective.
With human trafficking on the rise, we are committed to increase our response to end exploitation of the most vulnerable — through prevention. By simply inspiring one friend or creatively taking local action to make a global impact, you’ll help make it possible to rescue and empower more orphans than ever before. Join us.