January.24.2018

KIVA Project Update: January 2018

Happy anniversary BPW! Did you know that it was 10 years ago on January 11^th that we opened our Kiva account? Another fun fact, in the 2017 fiscal year BPW Saskatoon’s KIVA lending account supported 139 borrowers in 17 countries around the world. That’s pretty impressive for just one year!

In December we had 2 loans that received their last payments. The first, from the Hondogo Kibamba group, was to help those ladies from Tanzania to increase supplies of maize and beans for resale, and the second from Aminata’s Group in Senegal to buy groundnuts and vegetables for resale in town.

We also had 14 other loans receive payment, which allowed us to re-invest our funds in the following 3 wonderful ladies/groups:

Baktygul. Image courtesy KIVA.

Baktygul previously had a loan through KIVA to help grow her business and will use the current loan to purchase cows to increase her herd size. She is hopeful that the proceeds from the additional cows will allow her to purchase additional land for farming, as well as to eventually build a home.

Roubana. Image courtesy KIVA.

Roubana is a 25-year-old looking to help supplement her husband’s income to cover family expenses. She is using the loan to purchase hairstyling tools and scissors for her business.

Memory. Image courtesy KIVA.

Finally, Memory – a part of the Best Chickens Group – applied for a loan to increase the size of her broiler chicken inventory and further grow her market share in the local area. She is married with two children and will use the income to supplement her husband’s income to pay for household expenses and children’s fees.

If you haven’t yet checked out Kiva’s website, please feel free to look up www.kiva.org and see for yourself what opportunities there are to take only a small amount of capital and make a big change for these women around the world.