Who We've Helped
Razia
Razia, 34, is a mother of six who runs a general store in the town of Ali Pur Chatta, Pakistan. Her drive for success is motivated by a desire for better food, clothing, and medical care for her family. Razia needed a loan to buy a larger supply of goods, like salts and biscuits, in order to meet the growing needs of her customers. She hopes the growing needs of current customers and the expansion of her store will allow for her business to flourish.
(Loan has been 100% repaid)
José
At the age of four, José began working in the fields with his father in his hometown of Osicala, El Salvador. Now 29, José has his own farm, where he grows primarily beans and corn. José lives in a house with his parents and siblings. The only source of income for José and his family is the farm. José applied for a loan to fund an irrigation project to grow and improve his farming techniques.
(Loan has been 100% repaid)
Yuri
Yuri is a man from Ukraine who started his own auto supply shop. He has been working at his business for twelve years without any employees to help him. With help from the Global Microfinance Foundation, Yuri will be able to buy car jacks, antifreeze chemicals, oil, and numerous other commodities. Yuri will use the profits from these sales to open a second location for his company and further invest in his business. The Global Microfinance Foundation hopes that by helping entrepreneurs like Yuri, restless countries like Ukraine will soon find peace.
Marciana
Marciana is a sixty-one-year-old Filipina woman. Her husband, Rodrigo, is a chauffeur and together they have six children. Marciana owns a tailoring business, sells clothing materials, and also owns a burger stand to supplement her income. Loans from the Global Microfinance Foundation have allowed Marciana to purchase more supplies to increase her business. With her profits Marciana is enabled to further provide for her family and her community, which was devastated by the hurricanes that struck the Philippines. Marciana’s story is an excellent example of how through helping one person, the Global Microfinance Foundation is able to aid entire families and communities as well.
(Loan has been 100% repaid)
Rahima
Rahima, age 52, lives in the Central Asian country of Tajikistan. In a country where nearly a quarter of the citizens depend on agriculture for their livelihood, fertilizer is an invaluable commodity. Rahima has been growing garden crops for the past ten years in her hometown, Tursun-zoda. With the help of the Global Microfinance Foundation, Rahima and her family are now able to treat their crops and work to secure a good-quality harvest.
Umazi
Umazi lives in the village of Samburu, Kenya with no electricity or indoor plumbing. She sells charcoal in order to provide for her family and work to create a better life for her four children. However, the high prices of food and transportation have made operating her small business a daily struggle for Umazi. Thanks to a loan from the Global Microfinance Foundation, Umazi will be able to revitalize her business and take the first steps towards a higher standard of living.
Chanthrea
Chanthrea, age 27, is the leader of a group of rice farmers in Cambodia. With rice being the number-one revenue producing crop in the world, the market for selling the cash crop is both lucrative and competitive. Chanthrea was in need of fertilizer to help her increase her viability in the trade, and therefore better provide for her young child. Thanks to a loan from the Global Microfinance Foundation, she will be able to produce her greatest crop yield yet. Not only will Chanthrea be able to create a better life for her family, but her work group and hometown will benefit as well.
(Loan has been 100% repaid)
Miguel
Miguel Sergio is a 23-year-old student from La Paz, Bolivia. He has completed one year’s worth of university study, but is facing a difficult time getting through the next three years. In order to pay his way through school, he took a job at an electronics store. While he works very hard, often staying after hours, he lacks the time and resources to focus on his academics to the extent he would like. With the help of the Global Microfinance Foundation, Miguel Sergio will be able to purchase a computer. The computer will help him complete his schoolwork much more efficiently and make the most of his time. Once he obtains his degree, Miguel Sergio will be able to start and provide for a family and work to better his community.
Yursa
Yursa, age 26, lives with her husband and four sons in Marka, Jordan. Her husband started a construction business, but the family found that his revenue alone was not enough to support four growing boys. Yursa began to buy and resell clothing to bring in extra resources. Now that her business is doing well, Yursa asked for a microloan to help expand her business. Thanks to the Global Microfinance Foundation, Yursa can now reach a wider demographic with children’s clothes, jewelry, and other accessories. With this new influx of capital, Yursa’s small business can continue to grow and be successful.
Baramu
Rounding out the Global Microfinance Foundation’s “Ten Nations, Ten Families, Ten Months” campaign is Baramu. This 25-year-old cocoa farmer from Uganda has a wife and two children, only one of whom can be sent to school. When the cocoa harvesting season ends, Baramu turns to his small retail shop for income. With the help of the Global Microfinance Foundation, Baramu will be able to offer more merchandise such as eggs, sugar, and candy. In time, Baramu hopes to save up enough money to buy his own farmland, demonstrating how a microloan can help accomplish so much more than its original purpose.
(Loan has been 100% repaid)
Srey
Srey, age 34, lives with her husband and two small children in Cambodia. Her village in the Cheong Prey district is largely dependent on agriculture for the livelihood of its inhabitants. Srey and her husband have been growing rice on a small plot of land for the past sixteen years. The family’s daily income of $10 has proved insufficient for supporting a business, providing for two growing boys, and keeping up with daily expenses. Thanks to the help of the Global Microfinance Foundation, Srey will be able to expand her farm and turn a greater profit. Srey’s loan concludes the GMF’s Ten-Ten-Ten campaign, which, after helping eleven families in ten different countries over the course of nine months, became the Eleven-Ten-Nine campaign.
The Phiengdee Group
Phiengdee is a small, developing town in rural Laos. The drinking water in that village comes mostly from shallow streams and wells, which leads to a severe lack of quality and a plethora of harmful organisms. Villagers, therefore, are required to consistently devote a significant portion of their incomes to buying either bottled water or paper filters. As the first loan in the “water” stage of the Day in the Life campaign, the GMF made a loan to this village that will allow them to purchase sustainable filters. These state-of-the-art filters from TerraClear Development last anywhere from two to five years and lead to a substantial reduction of waterborne disease. The people of Phiengdee can now devote the money previously spent on disposable means of purification to the development and viability of their village.
Phiengdee Group's Kiva Profile
Yacine*
Yacine is a Senegalese woman who started up her own business selling clothing. She mainly uses the money she earns to help with daily household upkeep and send her children to school. Working nearly twelve-hour days, Yacine hopes to progress to a point where she can start selling cosmetics at a boutique in her village’s market. Thanks to a loan from the Global Microfinance Foundation (which marks Yacine's third successful loan), she will be able to diversify her products, expand her business, and better provide for her family.
*(Name changed for security purposes)
Nuru
Nuru is a mother of three from Kenya. She began selling clothes door-to-door in order to send her children to school. The high cost of transportation has limited Nuru’s business, though she still strives for success and dreams of one day opening up her own store. Working diligently out of her rented house with no running water, Nuru has grown her operations tremendously in just three years. A loan from the Global Microfinance Foundation will allow Nuru to purchase more clothes and afford transportation, bringing her one step closer to her dream of owning her own store.
Reyna ISabel
Reyna, age 34, has been a cornerstone of her village’s economy for twenty years. Her baking business has both provided her friends and neighbors with wholesome food and supported her family. As her business grows, Reyna is finding it more and more difficult to operate a kitchen without running water. Thanks to a loan from the Global Microfinance Foundation, Reyna will be able to bring clean water into her home and continue to nurture her business.
God's Grace School
Kanan, the dedicated principal of God’s Grace Junior School in Uganda, faces daily an enormous problem. Though he strives to bring accessible education to the children of his town, it is difficult for school to even take place due to a lack of clean water. Many children have to travel long distances to get to school, and it is simply unhealthy not to provide clean drinking water for them. Thanks to a loan from the GMF, Kanan will be able to install a water purification tank that can hold up to 450 liters (about 120 gallons) of water for his students each day. Though officially a “Water” loan for the Day in the Life campaign, this loan will also help to bring wider schooling to this large Ugandan community.
God's Grace School's Kiva Profile
Celestina
Celestina is a devoted mother who lives with her family in Daan Bantayan, Philippines. For three years, she has been supporting her children by selling clothes to the people in her community. Due to recent devastation in the Philippines, Celestina’s business has diminished, and the people of Daan Batayan have been without a steady supply of sturdy clothing. With the GMF’s help, Celestina will be able to buy more stock and augment her business, providing much-needed clothing to her ever-growing community.
OCtavio and his daughter
Octavio, like all fathers, only wants the best for his children. He has raised his eldest daughter in the same small town in East Timor for eighteen years, and the time has come to send her off to college. Octavio hopes that through providing an education for his daughter, more opportunities will be made available for her. Thanks to a loan from the GMF, Octavio will be able to pay for the tuition, textbooks, and other supplies necessary for college. The GMF is excited to provide education for Octavio’s daughter as part of the Day in the Life campaign’s “Education” category, and hopes that she will set the path for many of the other young women of East Timor.
Octavio and his Daughter's Kiva Profile
Mwanafusa
Thanks to her entrepreneurial spirit, Mwanafusa was able to move her family into a new home with electricity and plumbing. Operating from Likoni, Kenya, Mwanafusa has worked to provide for her three children by selling grains, flour, and sugar from her own store. Now, she wants to expand her business to better provide for her children’s education and combat the problems faced by her community. Thanks to a loan from the GMF as part of the “Business” category of the Day in the Life campaign, Mwanafusa will be able to accomplish all of her goals.
Joseph
Joseph lives in Kakamega, Kenya, with his wife and his six children. He works every day of the week, without weekends or holidays, in order to provide for his family and send his children to school. His ultimate goal is to provide his sons and daughters with the best education possible in his region, and send them to a private, religious school. As part of a special GMF Loan through Opportunity International, Joseph will be able to purchase stock of a higher quantity and quality in order to earn more money. This loan, as part of the “Business” category of the A Day in the Life campaign, is a special one in that it will also provide education for six special children, demonstrating all that can come from a singular loan.
Joseph's Opportunity International Profile
Rimy
Rimy is a 21-year-old, unmarried woman living on the West Bank of Palestine. Her father works seven days a week, but does not earn much to support Rimy, her mother, and her four brothers. Rimy and her eldest brother are currently studying engineering at a university where the costs are very high. Thanks to a loan from the Global Microfinance Foundation, Rimy will be able to better pay for education and start paying off the steep corporate loans she was forced to take out. Rimy is one young woman the GMF sought out to help as part of the “Education” category of the A Day in the Life campaign.
Sitora
Sitora is a 22-year-old Tajikistani woman from a small town. A junior at one of the largest universities in the country, Sitora is currently working towards a degree in Finance. She is very active on campus and within her community, and is both well-known and well-liked in many circles. However, Sitora does not have the money to pay her tuition fees. Because she defaulted on a payment, she is being blocked from taking her exams, and will not be able to move forward in her education. Thanks to a loan from the GMF, Sitora will be able to pay for her education and take her next big step forward.
Veronica
Veronica lives in Bolivia with her partner and two children. She is a very dedicated mother, selling her wares at the market to send her older son to school and take care of her younger son at home. Veronica is one of the most experienced weavers in her region, and makes all-important hats, scarves, and sweaters for the children living in the cold mountain climate. This is her first loan in 13 years of business, as she hopes to expand and bring her wares to a larger, wholesale market. This kind of dedicated craftsmanship serves as the first loan recipient in the “Arts” category of the A Day in the Life campaign.
Jetrida
Jetrida is a married 27-year-old mother of two, and she lives with her family in the town of Kasese, Uganda. Jetrida has been making sweaters since she was 12 years old, and has learned that when school is not in session, sales plummet. Because of this seasonal nature of her business, Jetrida has found it difficult to grow and expand her business. She makes beautiful clothes, and the GMF has been able to help Jetrida bring them to a wider market through the Day in the Life campaign’s “Arts” section.
Anar
Anar lives in the Ozgorush village in Kyrgyzstan, and has two jobs as an agriculturalist and a high school teacher. At age 46, she has been a community leader and prominent member of her village’s economy for 16 years. Thanks to a loan from the GMF, Anar will continue to grow her farm, purchasing fertilizer and seeds. Her business will grow and she will be able to better provide for her family.