It was agreed by our membes to use £200 from the £1000 donation given to the club by Poppy Vejjabul for loans to women through the KIVA scheme. Kiva is an organisation which helps people obtain loans to carry out projects. They often work with people who live in some of the poorest countries in the world – people who are not able to go to a bank for a loan. Kiva only started in 2005, yet since then 1,299,877 lenders have made loans of $714,978,975 in 85 different countries, with a 98.72% repayment rate.
More information is available at www.kiva.org
SI Aberdeen have made 5 loans of $50 (c£40.80) totalling £204.80. These are the recipients of the loans:
Maria from Paraguay
Maria is from the city of Asuncion. She is studying in her third semester towards a law degree. Maria has many goals that she would like to fulfil and accomplish. She is a person who strives to open doors into the workplace so that she can help other people. Maria is requesting this loan of $1850 so that she can invest in the payment of her degree fees and continue her studies.
Lydia from Madagascar
Lydia is 50, and married. She would like a loan of $200 to help her child create income generating activities to help her child to become autonomous as the child will soon be married. Lydia has been in the business of pig farming for about 30 years. All her previous loans have been for the pig farming business. Taking into account the breeding cycle (sale after 5 or 6 months of fattening), it is essential to have sufficient funds to make the business profitable: increase the number of pigs and conform to the standards and techniques of farming.
Juba Hill Traders Group, Sierra Leone
Ann-Marie leads a group of 4 members in her locality. She is a 46 year old married mother of 3 children. Ann-Marie runs a cooked food business and makes a daily profit which she uses to support her family. She would like a loan of $1025 to purchase more bags of rice and gallons of vegetable and palm oil so that she can expand her business and improve her earnings. The Juba Hill Traders Group members are also engaged in income generating activities and seek loans to purchase necessary materials. Sierra Leone is one of the countries where the Ebola epidemic has deeply affected the national economy.
Elizabeth from Mexico
Elizabeth is a single young woman who is 35 years of age. She lives in Distrito Federal and works as a self-employed merchant. Her mother recently began experiencing pain in her eyes. She was examined by a specialist, who detected a perforation in the retina. Elizabeth’s mother runs the risk of losing her vision, a situation that left her depressed along with the entire family. She needs surgical treatment that will help her to regain her vision. The loan of $1125 she is requesting will be used to pay for her mother’s treatment so that she can recover her vision as soon as possible.
Geraldina from the Philippines
Geraldina works hard to support 3 children. She is married and has a business farming vegetables in the Philippines. Geraldina has requested a loan of $275 to build a sanitary toilet for her family. Geraldina is aware that by using the sanitary toilet she is reducing health and hazard risks to her family and neighbours as well as promoting environmental protection. This loan is part of the NWTF (Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation) green loan programme, which helps clients to gain access to environmentally friendly products that reduce pollution in the Philippines.
[NB Some of the above information has been translated by volunteers from the applicants native language]
Hopefully this gives an idea of the range of applicants, countries, purpose and amount of loan that can be selected. Please browse the website www.kiva.org to see more. Once repayments start coming in more applicants can be selected for a loan, so your ideas will be very welcome.
Currently all of the above recipients have received 100% of their requested loans so we hope to see some repayments soon!
President Pat Stewart