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Friday, July 27, 2012

We help a group of women in Senegal


Today we added $3.54 to the repayments in our Kiva account and for our 35th loan of $25 we helped a group of brightly dressed women in Africa, so they can improve their market businesses.

These women have such wonderful (and to me unpronounceable) names I thought I'd include them - Awa Tidiane, Aissatou Sidy, Dienabou, Mariama Aly, Aminata, Ansarou Diatta, Hawa Mamadou, Mariama, Dienabou Dembou, Oumou, Aissatou, Fatimatou, Aminata Balde, Kadiatou Saidou, Ramatoulaye Ismaila, Sona, Ousseynatou, Rougui, Mariama Poulo, Tombon , Bobo, Saibatou. I doubt many of them would  turn to look at me if I attempted to call their names out at their market.

Here's what their application said:

"This group comprises 23 women who are very active within their banc villageois, created in December 2010. They all come from the same neighborhood and they get along well with each other. Their main activity is small retail.

The group's featured borrower, Diènabou, is 36 years old. (She is sitting on the right-hand side in the photo, and raising her hand). She is married and the mother of five children, four boys and one girl.

She has a spot at the market, where she has been selling vegetables and groundnut paste for the past six years.

With this loan, she is planning to purchase some vegetables and groundnut paste at the weekly markets in the south-east. 

She will buy:

- 20 bags of onions, at a cost of 70,000 CFA francs, and will retail them for 120,000 CFA francs,
- 2 bags of eggplants, at a cost of 10,000 CFA francs, and will retail them for 15,000 CFA francs,
- 10 buckets of groundnut paste at a cost of 100,000 CFA francs, and will retail them for 130,000 CFA francs.
She will pay 15,000 CFA francs for handling and transportation costs.

After deducting operating costs and daily expenses, she will end up with an average net profit of 55,000 CFA francs every other week.

With the profits from her activity, she will be able to put some money into saving, assist her husband with the daily expenses, and buy a plot of land."

We love Kiva in part because we don't have a lot of spare cash to give away. With Kiva we can deposit $25 into our account and lend it to someone and then, when the money is repaid, we can either lend it out again or get our money back. We choose to top up our account by a couple of dollars each month, meaning we've so far put a total of $238.32 into our account but loaned out $875.

There's a FREE TRIAL going on over at KIVA at the moment, so if you want to see what it's all about before you put in your own money, press the link. LINK





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4 comments:

Tanya said...

Hi Bruce, Ive been following the blog for a while after coming across it via the SAHM website & have recommended it to lots of people as I really enjoy your writing!
But after reading through your Kiva posts you've inspired me to give the free trial a shot and also give this ago within our own family :) So thanks!

Unknown said...

Fantastic, Tanya. I hope you guys get as much satisfaction from the experience as we do :)

Anonymous said...

I also discovered your blog via the SAHM site. Kiva was not a charity I was aware of before now but I am stunned that they are not more widely known. My family has just taken up the free trial offer and we are looking forward to being able to make other loans available.
Faith

Unknown said...

So excited you've decided to try Kiva out - they really do provide and fantastic opportunity for so many people. Cheers :)


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