Hello Cromrades,
Once again it’s time to throw our money at a problem and see if we can’t make someone’s life a little better. Sadly (?), the loans that you suggested were already fully funded when I checked (less than 48 hours after you made the suggestion, I swear). So I just went with our general theme of prioritizing African women, and then going on an ad-hoc basis for everything else.
Here’s the result: [Read more…]
Hey Cromrades, pay day was this week, so we’ve got a hole burning in our Paypal account. Help me spend our money by going to Kiva.org and picking out your favourite project. We have enough cash this round to fund FOUR projects (owing to loan repayments and a really stellar month of March), so let’s get cracking!
By the way, you can check out our donor page here.
For the month of October, we made $46.38, and loaned $50.
For the month of November, we made $65.81, and loaned $50.
For the month of December, we made $44.76, and loaned $50.
For the month of January, we made $58.59.
For the month of February, we made $57.33 and loaned $125.
For the month of March, we made $78.68.
Total amount loaned so far: $275
Total loan funds repaid: $41.49
Fund balance: $108.64
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I’ve been slacking again, but I took the opportunity today to update our Kiva project.
Mwanamisi is a married woman with 3 children, all of whom attend school. She owns a house that neither has electricity nor piped water. Her greatest monthly expenses are food and school fees. For the past five years, she has operated a weaving business. She uses coconut fronds to make roofing materials to sell from her home to her customers. She faces a major challenge of high transport expenses and seasonality. She dreams of starting a shop. With the Kshs. 40,000 she wants to purchase additional coconut fronds and increase her products. She decided to join Yehu to access loans to uplift her living standards.
Mohammad is 20 years old and lives in Gaza with his parents, who depend on him financially. He started work on his own farm recently; he raises and sells sheep and sheep products. His dream is to enlarge his business. He needs this youth loan to cover costs, so he asked Ryada for funds to build an additional enclosure for his sheep. He will be able to gain income and ensure economic stability for his family.
Grace is a 34-year-old married woman with three children living in Kagadi, Uganda. She operates a stationary business in Kagadi, which she has run for a period of five years. She got start-up capital from savings, as she first worked in a hotel as a waitress. Inadequate capital and price fluctuations are challenging factors affecting her business. She would like to educate her children and hire employees to help her expand her business. Grace wants a loan to buy books, pens, and reams of paper to sell.
This client, Masika, is the president of the loan association Espoir. A brave and tireless woman and an entrepreneur, she is 60 years old, divorced, and the mother of seven children. Among the births, there are twins. All of the children have their own homes already. Masika sells “mandale”, a local beverage. She started her business with her own funds from her husband before they divorced. Then she benefited from an initial loan as additional funding around 2008 from the microfinance institution Hekima. She says that this business has brought up her children, that is, the profits from her business went toward savings, food, and schooling costs. Masika makes her sales out of her home. However, she just obtained her 12th loan. This client decided to reduce the loan amount because a financial crisis is looming. This new loan must serve to supply her with the ingredients for making “mandale” drink (2 sacks of corn, sorghum, etc.) In addition, her ambition is to buy more plots of land for her children. This client thanks Hekima and her partners for their actions helping poor women with low incomes to become autonomous.
Sammy is a prospective student applying for a loan to start work on a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications at Strathmore University.
So there it is. I will try to remember to bug you to help me pick loans (as my usual thing is just to pick African women) when our money comes in at the beginning of June.
For the month of October, we made $46.38, and loaned $50.
For the month of November, we made $65.81, and loaned $50.
For the month of December, we made $44.76, and loaned $50.
For the month of January, we made $58.59.
For the month of February, we made $57.33 and loaned $125.
Total amount loaned so far: $275
Total loan funds repaid: $33.07
Fund balance: $23.47
Hello Cromrades,
Once again, the windfall of cash from your traffic has come in, so it’s time for you to help me spend our money on a Kiva microloan (or two). Go to Kiva.org and pick out your favourite project. Leave a link in the comments, and at week’s end I’ll sift through them and pick the best two.
For the month of October, we made $46.38, and loaned $50.
For the month of November, we made $65.81, and loaned $50.
For the month of December, we made $44.76, and loaned $50.
For the month of January, we made $58.59.Total amount loaned so far: $150
Total loan funds repaid: $5.00
Fund balance: $66.66
Hey Cromrades,
I didn’t hear much from you with regard to our Kiva project, so I donated all the money to Invisible Children.
Joking.
But I didn’t have time to go through the Kiva.org website and really closely scrutinize the projects, so I just picked a couple at semi-random. This is why I need y’all to help me out here – to make sure our money goes to the best source.
At any rate, here’s where it went this month:
Unyenyekevu Group – DR Congo
Kavira is an entrepreneur and head of the Unyenyekevu business group. She is 55 years old, married and the mother of 10 children, who are all in school. Her husband is a mechanic. Kavira sells second hand handbags. She has been involved in small-scale business of this type for four years. This is her 11th loan from Hekima, and will enable her to buy one sack of bags, among other things.
Kavira would like to see her children grow up in comfort, expand her business and buy another plot of land to leave to her children. She would like to thank Hekima for its work helping poor women who are excluded from traditional banking.
Ayen Thon – South Sudan
Ayen lives in Bor. She sells charcoal and has been in business for three years. She is 30 years old, married, and has no children. Ayen heard about BRAC South Sudan from a credit officer and this is her third loan from BRAC.
She has requested a loan of 1,500 SDG in order to purchase charcoal. She will use her extra income from this loan to build a house in future.
$25 has gone to each of these projects. I picked them because a) African, b) women, c) business. My selection criteria, I’m afraid, are not much fancier than that.
Because of the tendency for these loans to get funded fairly quickly, I’d suggest that if you’re interested in providing input into these loans, wait until I announce the next round (i.e., in a month’s time). I do hope you will chime in with where these funds are going, because I am bound to overlook something, and I consider this our money – at least until we have enough to spend on something I really want then I’m leaving you suckers in the dust from my G4.
For the month of October (the first month this site went live), we made $46.38, and loaned $50.
For the month of November, we made $65.81, and loaned $50.
For the month of December, we made $44.76, and loaned $50Total amount loaned so far: $150
Total loan funds repaid: $2.50
Fund balance: $5.57
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Hey Cromrades, I was slacking a bit last month and did not make any contributions to our Kiva project. I’ve since taken the liberty and the initiative, and picked two loans for us to support:
John, 39 years old, is a mixed crop farmer. He is married to Susan, also a farmer, and they are blessed with two children. He has farmed for the past ten years, earning 7,000 KES a month, and uses his income to support his family. John is applying for a third loan after repaying his previous two loans successfully. He will use the 43,000 KES to buy fertilizer and seedlings for his farm. With the anticipated profits from his farm he will educate his children. His hopes and dreams are to buy a piece of land and build rental houses.
The Communal Bank “Flor de Quinua” (Quinoa Flower) is starting its second loan cycle with Pro Mujer as part of the Juan Pablo II Community Center. This group consists of eight members and is led by a Board of Directors headed by Sra. Pascuala. The members of this Communal Bank engage in various businesses in order to get ahead such as selling shoes, knitting sweaters, selling toasted foods, washing cars, making crafts from plaster, selling woven articles, and knitting blankets.
Sra. Pascuala says that she started working Pro Mujer one year ago and joined the organization upon receiving an invitation from a member. She currently has a business producing crafts out of plaster (stucco) where she has worked for some time. Pascuala learned this trade from her son-in-law. The loan she is receiving now will be used to increase her capital for purchasing stucco that she acquires from the distribution shops. She will later sell the products she makes in her community. Working in this manner enables her to generate income to support her family. Pascuala is separated from her spouse and has three children.
Both of these projects were loaned $25.
Also, pay for December came in, so it’s time once again for you to help me spend our money. You’ll notice that $2.50 from the first loan was paid back, so that’s back in the pot. Please take some time and poke around the Kiva.org website, and make a recommendation. I’ll make a decision for 2 loans and announce it on Friday.
For the month of October (the first month this site went live), we made $46.38, and loaned $50.
For the month of November, we made $65.81, and loaned $50.
For the month of December, we made $44.76Total amount loaned so far: $100
Total loan funds repaid: $2.50
Fund balance: $55.57
Let’s keep it rolling, folks!
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Hello Cromrades,
Once again, we have the opportunity to spend some of our money to make the world a slightly better place. We’ve already made our first loans, and now we have another chance to do it again. So fly, my pretties! Go to Kiva.org, pick out your favourite loan (please keep it to a single loan per person, otherwise it’s way too much for me to comb through). I will make a decision and an announcement next Friday.
For the month of October (the first month this site went live), we made $46.38, and loaned $50.
For the month of November, we made $65.81Total amount loaned so far: $50
Total loan funds repaid: $0
Fund balance: $62.19
Let’s see your wish list, folks!
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I received this e-mail last night:
This is an update on your loan to Gulshan Mammadova in Azerbaijan.
Thanks to you and 95 other Kiva Lenders, the $2,550.00 loan request in Azerbaijan has been 100% funded.
This loan will be used for the purpose of: to purchase cleaning solutions
Over the 20 months of this loan, Kiva’s Field Partner in Azerbaijan, Komak Credit Union, will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.
Thanks for lending to the world’s working poor on Kiva!
Start dreaming up plans for the next project, Cromrades! I will have information about how much revenue your hits have generated coming in the next couple of weeks.
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Hey Cromrades,
I received this e-mail last night:
This is an update on your loan to Godeffroy Edgar in Benin.
Thanks to you and 36 other Kiva Lenders, the $1,000.00 loan request in Benin has been 100% funded.
This loan will be used for the purpose of: buy 3 batches of oil and other items.
Over the 12 months of this loan, Kiva’s Field Partner in Benin, Finadev Benin, will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.
Thanks for lending to the world’s working poor on Kiva!
Best Wishes,
Kiva Staff
Good work all around. We have helped, in our small way, to help someone get a hand up on financial independence. Let’s keep the momentum going next month!
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Cromrades,
We have done a great thing today. We have stood in the face of great economic disparity, and unflinchingly taken a tiny step toward reducing it. The cry went up, Cromrades, and we answered it to the tune of 2 Kiva loans.
The first, to Gulshan Mammadova in Azerbaijan:
Gulshan needs 2000 AZN to purchase new merchandise (cleaning solutions) for sale. She sold only food products at her store, but now wants to also sell cleaning solutions because these goods are in demand among customers. Gulshan is married and has three children. She is an IDP (Internally Displaced Person) from the city of Fuzuli and now lives with her husband and children in the Fuzuli region. Gulshan is 32 years old. She has had this food store for six years.
And the second, to Godeffroy Edgar in Benin:
Godeffroy is married and has three children. He specializes in making and selling soap in Cocotomey. To distribute the soap, he takes it to pharmacies, supermarkets and sales outlets. In order to meet client demand, he is asking Finadev for a loan so he can increase his working capital and contribute to household expenses.
Two loans of $25 each were made on behalf of the Crommunist Manifesto. The loans are scheduled to be repaid in 20 and 12 months respectively.
Thanks to everyone who helped pick these loans. I’m looking forward to doing this again next month.
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