Here is our monthly Kiva update for you! We are super proud to share with you that with your help, we have now lent a total of $850, helping a total of 29 people/groups in 22 different countries so far. Please have a look below to read a little more about all the people who received our support.
In the area known as Los Ángeles in the city of Portoviejo the members of the Grupo De Crédito Nuevo Renacer de Los Ángeles (Credit Group New Awakening of Los Ángeles) meet every five days. This group consists of 11 women who, with the help of the loans, are going to improve their lives. They´re following various businesses with the aim to be helpful for the society and their families, who are the most important thing for them.
One of the members of this group is Hilda. She is 20 years old and is living in a free relationship. From this partnership she has a 17-month-old son.
Her partner is a security guard.
Hilda is a young woman and a fighter. She likes working to earn her own funds for improving her living quality. That´s why she is running a small shop in her house for three years now, where she is selling basic food supplies. With the help of the loans she hopes to buy a greater variety of products and to expand her business little by little. In her shop she is also selling clothing of all kinds and on certain days she is going out to sell from door to door.
This way she manages to have some extra earnings which she always invests in her home and her baby who needs many things.
She will use this loan to buy food and clothing for her sales. This is her first cycle in the Credit Group and she hopes that she will recieve the help of the loans for a long time. She dreams of improving her business and give the best to her family.
The small foto shows a member who could not be present when the foto of the group was taken.
The three members of our community bank, a man and two women–José Santana, Neysi and Marlene–live in the city of Bilwi. They started their group 8 months ago to access credit from Pana Pana for supporting their small businesses. They hope this means of borrowing will increase their incomes and, in turn, help them to better support their families. They call their group BRONCE [“Bronze”] because bronze is a precious metal and, like them, solid and strong.
Our member, Marlene, 36, is married and has two children. She started her own grocery because she wanted an income of her own. Thanks to a Kiva loan, managed by PANA PANA, she was able to add meat sales to her grocery. She is applying for a new loan that she will use to stock her meat & grocery business with the merchandise that she needs to carry on the business. For the future, she hopes to add hardware sales.
Ma Teresa is a woman with a great sense of humor. She never misses an opportunity to joke with people and help create a climate of confidence. She works planting corn and breeding lambs, both of which are common trades in the community in which she lives. In this season, the houses are surrounded by stalks and cobs. People are preparing for the harvest that will begin in November. “To work in the cornfield isn’t easy,” Ma Teresa says. Fortunately she has had her own land for 4 years, in contrast to many others who have to rent parcels to sow. The corn Ma Teresa harvests she uses principally to feed her family, but there is always a small portion left over that she can sell to earn a little extra.
Her primary job is breeding lambs. This allows her to help her husband with the household expenses. Delfino, her husband, works in construction in the capital. They only see each other on the weekends when he returns to their community. During the week, Ma Teresa takes care of the animals, the parcel of land, and their 4 children. Thanks to the loans of VFMéxico that she received 2 years ago and to her great effort, she has managed to make some renovations to her home, and can buy clothes and shoes for her little ones with greater ease. She will use the new loan to invest on buying some lambs and food. Nevertheless, there is still much to do, and she dreams of learning to cut hair and open a salon in the future. The other members of the group are Lourdes and Mauricio who invest in bulls, Juana who invests in a store, and Clara and María de Luz who invest in lambs.
*The photo was taken in the central plaza of the town where the members live. Ma Teresa is wearing a purple blouse and a green shawl. She is holding the hand of one of her children.
This group is made of two women who are very dynamic. They are trained in the business field, and have always fully repaid their loans. Ms. Adja Oumou, who is standing at the right of the photo raising her hand is the group representative. She is a widow, 62 years old, and the mother of six children, four of which are girls.
She has been in the business of making palm leaf oil, lemons, and brooms for several years now. She is an exemplary woman at the banc villageois. The earnings that she makes will be used to take care of her family.
If you feel inspired to help Kiva yourself or want to see more of the work they do, make sure you check out our blogpost here to find out why we LOVE helping them or go straight to their website to get lending. Every little contribution goes a long way.
Thank you from us and KIVA!