Those of us with access to a working financial infrastructure can help those who don’t via microlending. So on the same day as that blog post we helped lend money to a woman in the Philippines who ran a general store which generated about $115 worth of month income for her family. Since that date, the woman in the Philippines to whom we loaned money has already repaid 41% of the money lent to her! This is ahead of the debt repayment schedule she committed to through Kiva, by the way, and a lot faster than most of us could repay our business loans!
With the money repaid from Magdalena I reinvested it in two more loans to two different entrepreneurs:
Rose Wanjiru Njuguna who lives in Kenol-Muranga, Kenya
Rose is 50 years old and married to James Njuguna. She and James have three children. She has been running her shop for 16 years with an income of Kshs 11,500 per month (that works out to about $4.80 of income per day). She has a good history with KADET and is applying for her third loan which she intends to use to buy stock of flour, bar soaps, and liquid detergent to sell. She hopes to buy a piece of land for the family.
This group is called “Sol y Estrellas” (Sun and Stars). The group is located in Toluca, Estado de México, Mexico
Yolanda González is a member of this group. She is 40 years old and has a sixth grade education. Yolanda works as a merchant and has four children, two daughters and two sons. She has a grocery store that she started seven years ago. Yolanda is requesting a loan to restock her store with more merchandise. Her customers include neighbors and acquaintances from the same community since it is the only store in the area. She wants to use the funds to increase her sales. In addition, she hopes to help her children do well in school and continue their studies.
About Group Loans
In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.
