My Kiva Loan - Mwanshasha Group
Yesterday I blogged about the wonderful grassroots charity Kiva who helps bring together lenders and the working poor so they can have access to microloans to grow businesses in poor countries and live a better life.
I have today chosen a entrepreneur and business who requires a loan to expand their business.
Mwanshasha is married with 4 children, ages 15 to 26. Mwanshasha owns a small food vending store, which she started in 2007. Every day she works from 6:30 AM to 8:00 PM at her business and can earn a monthly profit of about $35 from her sales.
She now hopes for a loan to buy more food items for her business. She will share this loan with her subgroup member, Bituni, who has a business dealing in fish sales.
The Mwanshasha Group is made up of Mwanshasha herself and Bituni Iddi and they are based in Tanga, Tanazania and her primary market is the food market. The repayment term is monthly over 10 months. She wants to expand her product offering adding items such as Irish potatoes, rice, flour etc.
She wanted to raise $250 and with my $175 loan which is around £90 and three other loans from other lenders (based in the USA) she now has the full amount and this will be distributed through a field partner charity in her country. In this case it is BRAC Tanzania.
BRAC a development organization began its operation in remote, rural area in Bangladesh as a small-scale relief and rehabilitation project in 1972 to help the returning refugees to resettle and overcome the devastation and trauma of the liberation war. Today, BRAC has emerged as an independent, virtually self-financed paradigm in sustainable human development. It is one of the largest Southern development organisations working with the twin objectives of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor women. Through Kiva BRAC has distributed $346,925 to the working poor.
Follow me over the next few months as I blog about the progress the loan will make to Mwanshasha and Bituni.