Darren and Minako
Darren and Minako Polischuk, founders of Work of Your Hand, worked under the umbrella of the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA) in Japan. There they had the opportunity to travel to impoverished countries to distribute “giftboxes” to poor children. Their hearts were wrenched as they witnessed marginalization and injustice against those who could least protect themselves. They saw rickety houses with underdressed children, felt the oppressive heat, smelled the rotting garbage and heard story after story of poverty and destitution. People living in garbage dumps or grave sites; people living off meagre feeding programs were doing anything to survive, even undignified work. Children who started off picking garbage were being rented or sold to brothels by their own parents; the needs seemed overwhelming.
Each poor community did what they could to survive. Since no one would hire them, the poor became entrepreneurs and created crafts to try and support themselves. Some of the crafts were beautiful and the people very resourceful. So they thought, why not purchase these crafts and sell them in first-world nations, and reinvest the profits back into these needy communities? This thought became the impetus in 2009. Work of Hand then worked with development organizations that helped the poor in Laos, Philippines and Indonesia.
In 2015, Work of Your Hand started its own vocational ministry on the ground, as the Polischuks moved to Cambodia where they started social economic businesses in order to help provide on the job vocational training for the poor and marginalized.