Two and a half years ago, Olga Krasnov was a mother of three with a broken marriage, no job or education, and living in a bad neighborhood. She was an immigrant from Estonia with nowhere to turn – until she found Christian Women’s Job Corps in Rock Hill.
Estonian immigrant Olga Krasnov was able to chart a new direction for her life with the assistance of South Carolina WMU’s Christian Women’s Job Corps.“She knew Christ, but she was discouraged,” said CWJC executive director Debbie Wieland.
Through encouragement and networking, Krasnov turned her life around. Two and a half years after walking through the doors of CWJC, her marriage has been mended, she completed school, and she has a job and is renting to own a home. Her whole family accepted the Lord, and all became American citizens.
CWJC was started by national WMU in 1997 to help women change their lives for the better by empowering them with biblical nourishment, a mentor for encouragement and accountability, and training opportunities to help them attain education, gainful employment, and self-sufficiency. South Carolina WMU has six CWJC locations, including the one in Rock Hill.
“It’s just been exciting to see how God has worked in Olga’s life,” Wieland said. “I’ve been very impressed. It’s an amazing story.”
Wieland said CWJC is far more than an agency that helps women find jobs, but instead works on the whole person to help them fulfill God’s purpose for their lives.
“Our primary goal in a Christian content is to work with women to empower them to a self-sufficient lifestyle,” Wieland said. “We’re not a quick-fix type of thing. We’re not a handout, we’re a hand-up.”
She said when Krasnov came to them, they were immediately able to find her a job. She then enrolled in York Technical College in the surgical technical program. She was assigned a mentor to help encourage and guide her.
“We were just there to hear her when she needed someone to talk to, to encourage her not to give up,” Wieland said.
Wieland said women are not required to be Christians in order to participate, but the program does include mandatory weekly Bible studies. From there, she said the program is designed to meet the needs of individual women to give them a whole host of life skills.
“We’re not a cookie-cutter type of thing – there’s individualism based on goals,” Wieland said.
She said they help women to assess their goals and then set out a plan to achieve those goals. Some of the things Krasnov was involved with included participation in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, along with learning computer skills and r?sum?-writing and interview skills.
Wieland said the goals of the program include teaching women how to keep a job, be a good employee, be a good mom and have a strong spiritual life.
“It’s all wrapped up together,” she said. “We try to give them the tools so that they can be self-sufficient.”
When Krasnov was in an auto accident and left without transportation, CWJC helped her to find another car so that she could continue to go to work and school.
“We try to remove a lot of barriers,” Wieland said.
Olga Krasnov and her husband Viktor take the oath of U.S citizenship.While CWJC set out to encourage Krasnov, Wieland said Krasnov has managed to encourage and inspire them and other women being assisted by the organization.
“She’s always had a very positive, humble attitude,” she said. “She’s really a special lady.”
South Carolina WMU’s six CWJC and CMJC (for men) sites include Colleton Christian Women’s Job Corps, Walterboro; CWJC of Greenville; CWJC of Pickens; Shepherd’s Door CWJC and CMJC of Spartanburg; CMJC of the Midlands (Columbia); and York County CWJC, Rock Hill.
York County CWJC was begun in 1996 as one of the pilot CWJC sites and is the only pilot site still in operation.
For more information about CWJC/CMJC, or for contact information for a specific site, contact Sandra Tapp in the South Carolina WMU office at 1-800-723-7242.