Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Kiva for chocolate bars

Kiva loan .


Pacari, started by Carla Barbotó and Santiago Peralta  created Ecuador’s first locally manufactured, premium chocolate bar. Pacari aims to benefit both consumers and producers. Pacari works directly with its cocoa growers to ensure farmers are trained and can deliver high quality cocoa. Pacari’s chocolate is 100% organic, soy free, gluten free, and dairy free. Pacari pays farmers for quality, offering roughly 2x the market price for their cocoa beans. Pacari currently works with 3,500 farmers, for cocao and other ingredients such as golden berries, Andean blueberries, salt, chile, and guayusa.

Loan use
The loan will be used to buy cocao from a new association of 30 small scale farmers with 90 hectares land. Pacari will purchase 660 quintals of cocao which will generate an approximate revenue of USD 105k for the association.

Monday, November 27, 2017

Kiva loan

Kiva loan to Indonesia
The featured borrower, Suyitno, is a 46-year-old corn farmer who lives in Lampung, Indonesia. He is married and has four children. He also has other small businesses that he manages like a kiosk and selling cattle.

He is asking for a loan through Vasham to support his corn farm, allowing him to purchase needed seeds and fertilizers that will boost his crop’s yield for the upcoming season. He has farmed with Vasham since 2016. Before that, he found it difficult to find someone that would allow him to borrow money for a loan.

Suyitno has been a farmer for two years. In the future he hopes to expand his land.
In this group: Suyitno, Witdiyanto

Friday, November 10, 2017

Kiva

Kiva loan to Mpundu
Mpundu is 29 years old and living with her husband in Samfya District, Zambia. She runs a salon, which sells hair products such as creams and cosmetics, and provides plaiting as a service. 

She used her first Kiva loan to diversify the range of her hair products she offered to customers to increase demand. With the profits, she was able to send her siblings to school. 

She is now requesting a second loan to continue to purchase a variety of hair products and make other investments in the business so that she can build her own salon to cut down on rent and employ more community members. 

Saturday, November 04, 2017

kiva and update on loan categories

Made a Kiva loan from a new microlender.  I am currently missing 7 countries, 3 activities and a whole lot of microlenders.

Vivian
Honiara, Solomon Islands 
A loan helps to buy rice, noodles, canned foods, biscuits, sugar, and tea for her general store business.

Friday, November 03, 2017

Kiva loan to Julia

Meet Julia, who is a first-time Kiva borrower and who is excited about this new experience. Julia is a humble, honest, and very hardworking mother. She has a lovely family whom she really adores. Thanks to her perseverance and courage, Julia and her household can lead a respectable life. She never had the opportunity to advance her education, but this did not kill her dream of wanting to succeed in life. So Julia started farming and has been doing farming for the past six years. Throughout those years, she has gathered much experience, and all the farming techniques are at her fingertips.

Julia practices mixed farming, and with her profits she has managed to take care of her family's needs, and give her children a good education. She believes that education is the only key to success.

She is seeking a loan of 50,000 KES to buy seeds and start horticultural farming on her farm. Julia wants to take advantage of favorable weather patterns, a good road network in her village, good soil, and a ready market for horticultural products in order to reap more profits. Julia hopes that through this loan, she will improve her living conditions. 

Help this mother to accomplish all her dreams with just a loan!

Thursday, November 02, 2017

Food and Kindness on Skid Row

Heading down to Skid Row to feed and offer kind words to people who didn't make it into a shelter tonight.  I do this with a group called Monday Night Missions. It's not religious, not official. We bring our own food (we meet and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), fruit water. And kind words.