It's the 17th of the month, the day loan repayments are calculated and deposited in KIVA lenders accounts, to be re-loaned or withdrawn. This month as usual we chose to loan the repayments which have come in, but we were a bit short after making two loans last month. I added $13.00 to the amount we received back and immediately made a $25.00 loan to members of Pro Mujer Bolivia (For Bolivian Women). This is loan # 52 for us in the four years since we became KIVA lenders, and it's been a source of immense pleasure to share our pensioner's mite with hard-working business people around the world.
The members' businesses are varied. Some sell fruit, or salchipapas (fried potatoes with hot dogs - I can testify that this combination is unexpectedly delcious), one sells computers, one sews layettes for newborns, one sells runners (i.e. tennis shoes) and one does carpentry work. What a busy, hard-working bunch of women!
This loan will benefit all these small business owners. The group's leader, María joined Pro Mujer six years ago by invitation from one of the institution's promoters, who visited her at home. Maria sells fruit from a market stall which she inherited when her grandmother died. The stall and the business were her grandmother's and María carried on that business.
She will use her loan to increase her working capital by buying fruit wholesale at the larger markets. She will later sell this fruit from her stall. Her business allows her to generate an income to help support her family, as she is married with two children.
When asked what she likes best about Pro Mujer, she says that she likes the access to health workshops and the ability to borrow money to improve her business.
If you would like to try KIVA out for free, click this link, and you'll be given a $25.00 credit to lend to any of the hundreds of applicants waiting to be given a chance to improve their lives and the lives of their families through access to something you and I take for granted - credit.
1 comment:
what a cool idea
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