Last week, Hopeline Institute held their first trade fair. This two day event featured the micro, small, and medium size entrepreneurs who are members of Hopeline, as well as some aspiring new members-to-be! In total, there were forty-six businesses who exhibited their products, ranging from manufacturing, to retail, to services, to agriculture! A total of 218 persons visited the first day and 335 people visited the second day, for a total of 553 people. A secondary objective was to tell the story of the work of Hopeline Institute and to encourage more entrepreneurs to be Marketplace Ministers. Many people signed up for the next training and so that objective was met as well. The Hopeline team kept me feeling very involved even though I was thousands of miles away - they Skyped me on for the opening ceremonies and then called me with updates throughout the day. One of the big draws was the raffle at the end of day two. Hopeline was able to get eleven great gifts donated for that - including a domestic flight, a laptop, office furniture, massage, dinner for two, etc!
What a great team! Congrats, Hopeline! May this be the first of many to come!
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| The flyer that went out - entry fee was 1 Gh cedi, which makes it look like one cent. |
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| The opening gate |
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| Rev. Tutu at the ribbon cutting, with Fanny by his side. |
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| The grand opening...if you look closely you will see me, even though I was in Michigan! (I'm on the laptop being carried and watched via Skype at 4 am!) |
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| Some of the 45 tables exhibiting at the Trade Fair. |
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| Before the opening...but the beautiful set up and creativity of Hopeline. |
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| The draw for the raffle... |
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| The happy winner of the laptop. |
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| The winner of a "Mother Care" basket. |
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| Each night they met with the exhibitors to talk about what went well and what can be done next time. They all look pretty tired! |
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