Kiva in Kenya

Meet Esther, a 31-year-old from Maili Saba. She is a widow and lives with her five children, all of whom are still in school.

Esther runs a grocery kiosk that supports her family. Her business has grown steadily since she began it despite challenges during rainy seasons. Esther has applied for the loan to build better grocery stall, as she currently sells her shop merchandise under a tree. 

Esther is happy about the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy training support which has actually been source of her motivation. In the future, she sees herself as having a mega stall and with improved living standards for her children. 

Esther appreciates you reviewing her Kiva loan request and hopes for your support.

Kiva loan for gas cylinders

Petra's story

Petra is a married woman with three children, all of whom attend school. She lives in her own house that has electricity but no piped water. Her greatest monthly expense is food for the family.

She has been operating a gas cylinders business for more than three years . She mentioned seasonality and transportation in her business. With the loan she wants to purchase stock of gas cylinders to resell. She decided to join Yehu to access loans and boost her business.

kiva loan to build space for entrepreneurs

Large KIVA loan - $35,000.

mpact Hub Accra is a locally owned and internationally connected entrepreneurship development and innovation center that supports small businesses, creates new jobs and opportunities, and promotes solutions to relevant socio-environmental challenges in Ghana, through entrepreneurship.

Impact Hub Accra was created in 2013 and supports over 250-member entrepreneurs and small businesses in Ghana. It is part of the Global Impact Hub Network of entrepreneurship and innovation centers, communities, and services present in more than 100 cities and 50 countries. Support to entrepreneurs is three-fold: (1) Workspace and infrastructure; (2) Curated events; (3) Business incubation/acceleration and access to capital training and support.

One member of Impact Hub Accra is Randy Caiquo, who founded web platform Crowdfrica after witnessing the death of his brother, simply because his family couldn't afford the hospital fees. Crowdfrica.org enables anyone around the world to donate directly to fund health insurance or healthcare for people in need. In 2016 Crowdfrica joined MEDspace, an early-stage incubator at Impact Hub Accra. So far Crowdfrica has funded life-changing healthcare for over 260 people. 

Impact Hub Accra now wants to bring its impact to the next level by implementing a new solar power system for stable backup electricity as well as invest in workspace improvements (ergonomic furniture and ventilation) to enable productivity gains for Ghanaian entrepreneurs.

---

This loan is special because:

It finances the creation of spaces and resources to support entrepreneurs.

Loan to change lives

Smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda do not have access to the equipment or finance add value to their coffee beans. They are forced to sell unprocessed coffee to middlemen at less than 5% of the retail value. Over 10 million smallholder coffee farmers are in a cycle of poverty from one generation to another.

Solution:

NUCAFE, the National Union of Coffee agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises, is a coffee farmers’ organization founded in 1995. NUCAFE uses a "farmer ownership model" whereby ownership of the coffee remains with the farmers while adding as much value as possible to the coffee. NUCAFE owns processing facilities (for cleaning, drying, grading, roasting, grinding and packaging services), which are used by its members to add value to their coffee. 

There are currently around 198 member associations working with NUCAFE, impacting more than 27,000 farmers. NUCAFE also helps farmer associations sell their produce by marketing their coffee to potential buyers. Members pay a service fee to NUCAFE for using their processing facility and marketing their coffee. Before partnering with NUCAFE a small farmer in Masaka Uganda sold 60kg bags of unprocessed coffee at UGX1,000 (USD0.40 per kg). He now sells 40kg bags of processed coffee at UGX4,350 (USD1.73 per kg). Learn more about NUCAFE in this video.

Loan use:

The loan will be used by NUCAFE to advance funds against the inventory brought in by the members associations for processing. NUCAFE will advance 60 to 70 per cent of the inventory value while the coffee is processed and sold. .

Kiva loan to Ghana

This loan will be used to purchase more shea nuts from pickers and employ more women full time in their facilities. Also, the loan will help NaaSakle International manufacture more shea butter products. This is NaaSakle's story in the founders words:

Back in 2000, my mother returned to our native Ghana to take care of her ailing mother (Grandma Sunshine). While there, she rediscovered her love of shea butter, a product known as Women’s Gold because of its usefulness to a woman’s household – 90% of the use of shea is in foods, but it also serves as a wonderfully soothing moisturizer and helps financially support millions of women across sub-Saharan Africa.

During Mom’s time in Ghana, she realized that the base of the shea pyramid, the women who often did back breaking work to support their families through the sale of shea butter, seldom received the fair value of their work. Traders would enter town, buy low and sell high on the global market (to which the women had no access), and leave these pickers and processors in the lurch.

She decided to step in and help strengthen existing cooperatives as well as build new coops in order to strengthen their networks. She started Mother Shea Limited which manufactures shea butter from shea nuts.

Throughout her time in the industry, she became a shea leader. The high quality shea nuts are picked by women in rural areas and they are converted into shea butter in-house. We’re using her past experience as the President of the Global Shea Alliance to provide consumers with the best shea around. With the help of thousands of sustainably paid and organically trained pickers, she brought attention and support to a pressured industry.

When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, I decided life was too short to not spend our days together, so I joined her team in 2015. I started NaaSakle International, which is a distributor of shea based products in the US. We aim at bridging the gap between these rural shea nut pickers and global demand through our business lines thereby providing sustainable wages and organic training to pickers in northern Ghana.

Learn more about NaaSakle's journey through her blog. Kindly note Eu’Genia Shea is a group company and part of the NaaSakle Group

kiva

This DloHaiti’s second loan on Kiva after successfully paying back in full a USD50k loan.

Problem

Over 50% of Haitian lack access to clean water and nutritious options. With cholera prevalent and health care inaccessible for many, water-borne diseases are a major cause of death in the country. See DloHaiti video

Solution & Impact

DloHaiti addresses this gap using solar-powered, community-scale water treatment facilities that are managed and operated by members of the community. Despite being 1/3 the price of market alternatives, all costs of water production are covered by the sales.

DloHaiti works with local retailers (lead picture) and distributors to ensure that convenient and affordable access to clean water and powdered milk is reaching more people. By coupling the milk with clean water, DloHaiti can improve nutrition at low cost through its distribution network. Its impactful because milk is not available or affordable to poor consumers. This ensures that the operation is economically sustainable and that the community-based entrepreneurs have strong incentives to continue providing clean water and powder milk. To-date DloHaiti has impacted the lives of 40,000 Haitians.

Loan Use

This loan will expand the water distribution by financing upfront costs like reusable jugs and also providing powdered milk. USD40k will be used to expand access to clean water and USD60k will be used to purchase the powdered milk to meet demand.

---

This loan is special because:

It expands distribution of clean water in regions across Haiti that would otherwise be unable to access it

kiva

Claudine is 40 years old. She is married with two children, 12 and 10 years old. Her household consists of five people. Claudine lives in a rural area near the other members of Kabere 16 Group. Claudine is unemployed, but her family income comes from her husband, who works in the sector. 

Claudine says she is choosing to lease a cook stove from Inyenyeri because she wants to save money on fuel used for cooking, and she also appreciates that it cooks cleanly. 

She currently uses charcoal for cooking. It is more expensive than using Inyenyeri’s fuel pellets, and the smoke causes black pots, ruined clothing, and sooty walls and ceiling. 

Claudine plans to use the money she saves on fuel to resume her chicken farming business.

In addition to the opportunities for improving the family’s livelihood that drew Claudine to the new stove, Inyenyeri’s Stove + Fuel system also provides a number of other valuable benefits: improved health outcomes through a substantial reduction of household air pollution, less environmental degradation related to the current unsustainable use of biomass for cooking, and mitigation of climate change through reduction of CO2 and black soot carbon emissions.

In this group: Epiphanie, Jean Claude, Evariste, Gaudence, Angelique, Claudine, Fidele, Francine, Contantine, Hamidou

kiva loan to business that makes stoves that charge and light off the grid

This is a loan to a business to provide more product.

Nearly half the world's population still cooks on open smoky fires, causing over four million respiratory-related deaths annually—more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. They also emit more black carbon, the second-greatest contributor to climate change, than all of the world's cars and trucks.

Solution

BioLite designs and manufactures personal-scale energy appliances that enable users to cook, charge, and light their lives off the grid. BioLite believes in a market-based revenue generated business model from their outdoor recreationist product line to support their emerging market initiative where Biolite partners with 3rd oarty credit-enabled distributors. These partners provide consumer finance to sell products to off-grid, low-income customers within their channels. BioLite supports distribution partners by providing product demonstrations, customer training, and after-sales service.

To date, BioLite has retailed 20,000 HomeStoves and 5,000 SolarHome 620 units, providing life-changing clean energy access to 125,000 people.

Loan Use

This loan will enable BioLite to bridge the gap in cash-flows that exists between manufacturing our products and delivering them to off-grid, low-income customers.

Kiva loan to an event planner in Gaza

Made a loan to Amer..  Amer is a 25-year-old single young man lives with his family in Rafah, Gaza Strip. He works hard to build himself and help his family in living expenses. He works in Event Planning. 

He sells and rents theaters, chairs and platforms for weddings and events. He went to Palestine for Credit and Development FATEN to request a US dollar loan to buy new goods( more chairs and theaters) for his work in planning events. This will improve his work and earns more income. He hopes you will help by funding his loan.

kiva loan

Yến is 35 years old and married with two children. She is an ethnic minority living in Cam Thuy district, a mountainous region of Thanh Hoa province, very far from center. She speaks ethnic minority languages and rarely goes out of the village, so she has no opportunity to access financial services. She has had a service tailoring clothes and a wedding-preparation service for more than 10 years. 

Her family is a low-income household in the village; moreover, the market need is low in this region. Yến is a reputable person in the community. This is her first loan from Thanh Hoa Microfinance Institution. The main hardship that Yến faces is lack of capital. She is requesting a loan to purchase instruments to maintain her wedding-preparation service.

With her business profit, Yến hopes for her business to do well, for her family to be healthy and happy, and for her children to do well in school.

Kiva loan to Huda in the Gaza strip

Huda, who appears in the photo, is a 30-year-old single girl who lives with her family in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. 

She is studying at a local university to get her masters degree in business administration. She studies hard so she can graduate and find a good job in her field. 

Her big sister is the responsible for her expenses, but she works in the public sector where she earns a low income that is barely enough to cover the basics. 

Huda needs a laptop for her study and she doesn't have enough money for it. For this reason, she went to Palestine for Credit and Development (FATEN) to request a US dollar loan to buy laptop for her study, to do research and homework. 

This will help her excel in her university studies and get her MBA faster. 

Go Fund Me

Just donated to a friends GoFundMe account. She has cancer and lives in the US and will need help.


Go Fund Me for Therese

Kiva loan in the USA

Made a Kiva loan in the USA.

I grew up in the city of Flint on the city north-side of town. This area has been the most disinvestment and crime ridden area since GM left over a decade ago. Once vibrant neighborhoods have become blighted, crime ridden and traumatized by a man-made water disaster crisis. The neighborhood I grew up in before the water crisis and crime and poverty help shape me as a youth. Many great memories and moments as a child and even to the current. I decided to stay around and be apart of the rebuilding process because I believe in it's people which is the cities greatest asset. I currently reside in the same neighborhood seeking to be a beacon of hope for those who feel like its hopeless. My dreams are to see thriving neighborhoods, economic development and for ex-offenders to have equal access to jobs, housing, education and to be able to participate in the cultural life of the community without discrimination.

Kiva loan to a teacher in Armenia

Ohan is 58 years old and he lives with his family in Vanadzor city of Lori region. Ohan has higher education and specialty of mathematician. Already 25 years Ohan works at the local school as a teacher of math. He also gives paid private courses of mathematics at his house and helps many pupils to get prepared for their entrance exams. Ohan is good specialist and usually all his pupils manage to have good results in thier exams. 

Now this loan of 1.000.000 Armenian drams Ohan asks as he wants to buy a computer, professional literature and he also wants to furnish his working-room with big round table and comfortable chairs as well.

---

This loan is special because:

It gives students and teachers an opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

Kiva loan

Kalala is a 40-year-old, married woman with four children. She runs a small business providing the services of lawn mowing in her community to earn a living. She has operated this business for the past three years. Kalala is a Samoan citizen, and she lives in a rural area. She works very hard to please her customers with the help of her children. She is well known in her community because of the services she provides. 

Kalala needs a loan to buy another lawn mower, chemicals, brooms, and celluloid to help take her business to the next level. She plans to use her profit to buy a vehicle to deliver her equipment. She became a member of SPBD in 2013. Kalala's dream is that one day she will gain more customers and earn more profit to help her family build a new home.

New Camera

I bought a camera today for a homeless person that is in a local facebook walking group that I am in.  Someone had stolen his camera and he was posting that he couldn't share pictures anymore.  The camera was one of his sole forms of communication.

He posted about it on his youtube.  Not used to seeing feedback.  I feel humbled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4_6mhkAv88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsp1BnrNV-g

Eco friendly wood objects where 100% goes to Puerto Rico

I just bought a few things from Lumber Jackie.  Until tomorrow 100% of proceedings goes to a Hurricane Relief fund for Puerto Rico.  I did a google search on my city and help Puerto Rico and found a local group that is helping, and someone from that group is making the wooden objects.  I'm thrilled I bought a few Christmas presents!