This is the first of two loans we’ll be making this month to help improve the situation of someone in a third world country. We can manage two $25 loans because this month’s repayments from past loans have given us $46 to reloan, so we only needed to add $4.
“Rakia is a single parent and has three children. Rakia makes and sells gari (a popular West African food made from cassava tubers), which she has done since age 20.
Rakia uses her income in the general upkeep of her children. Rakia will use the loan to purchase cassava tubers to product her gari for sale. With the new profit she hopes to earn, Rakia plans to expand her business.”
I don’t even know what gari is. Doesn’t matter. She needs to make it to support her family. We were especially touched by the photo above – we’ve gone camping to places with better constructed facilities.
This loan ran a higher risk of a default than any we’ve previously entered into, due to the field partner which manages the loan. But we’ve been lending money for nearly two years without a single default so we’ve decided Rakia is worth the risk.
It’s only $25 after all.
Click here to pop over to the Kiva site to see what this is all about
