KIVA Loan for May 2014

This month's KIVA loan goes to the Faïda group, which is comprised of six married women who live with their husbands and children in traditional families. On average, they are 48 years old and have eight children. They all live in Kanadjiguila in the town of Mandé, Mali and know one other through relatives, neighbors, and friends.

This is a Group Loan. In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Each Faïda group member has a small business selling some product to her neighbours and members of her community.  Madame Mariam (the woman standing in the middle of the photo) sells high-quality women's clothing, a wrap-around traditional  garment called pagnes wax. Other members sell cloth, beverages, firewood and cooking oil.  Each holds a sample of her goods in the photo.

With the goal of growing their businesses, the group members decided to apply for a group loan from Soro Yiriwaso, a microfinance institution which provides underprivileged communities in rural and semi-urban areas of Mali access to financial services. They serve disadvantaged clients, particularly women, allowing them to access resources and services which otherwise would be out of reach.

This is Faïda group's first loan. Madame Mariam is known for the high-quality of the clothing (pagnes wax) she sells. She plans on using her loan to buy 20 pagnes wax at wholesale prices in the main market. She will resell these at retail prices to a clientele comprised primarily of women.  She hopes to earn an average monthly profit of 35, 000 FCFA (abt $70.00) that she'll put back into her business and use to meet the needs of her children.

Kiva lenders enable Soro Yiriwaso to expand and reach even more under served Malians involved in their own small businesses. We're happy to join others in supporting Soro Yiriwaso and the Faïda group as they work together to improve the lives of the hard-working people of Mali.