Sad stories

[Guest]

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[Mona]

All other threads I have found on this topic are dedicated to certain people (Mark Agwonah, Najmo Din Gulbodin). Therefore, I decided to start this new thread after having just read a very sad and touching loan listing to share it with you:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=70338&_tpos=8&_tpg=1


Giovana is 33 years old and is a mother of two children, ages 12 and 10. The children's father abandoned the family many years ago, and now she lives with her new partner, Omar, with whom she also had a child, but sadly the baby died shortly after. It was a Thursday morning and like always she left to sell pineapple slices and tamales from her basket, not knowing that her son would fall into the river. After many days of looking, the body was found, and Giovana wanted to day and not work anymore. But she still had her other two children, and for them she tried to resume her activities. In the morning, she prepares their breakfast and lunch before leaving to sell her foods to drivers passing by. She really enjoys the activity, even though she says there's a lot of competition and sometimes she has trouble selling all of her tamales, which she then keeps for herself, and her earnings drop. After the hardship she endured, she tries to stay strong and work for her children. With the loan she is requesting, she will invest in the purchase of pineapples and other fruits to open a juice stand at a small rented storefront.

Thanks to everyone who has helped to fund this loan so fast!
Mona

[Mona]

Good to see you on this loan, Elizabeth! 

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=75073&_tpos=1&_tpg=1

Habib is a 60-year-old man who lives in Saida, in southern Lebanon, with his wife and their three children. Habib owns a grocery shop where he sells vegetables and candy. He has requested a loan of $1100 from Al Majmoua in order to improve his assets. Habib has been a micro-credit client for a long time and has always repaid his loans on time. Habib has owned his grocery shop for 39 years. He is open every day of the week until late at night. Habib has a good reputation in his village, thanks to the quality of merchandise he offers. His clients are his home and shop neighbors and as well as people who walk by. He is willing to purchase more merchandise to improve his business and satisfy more his clients’ needs. Habib has been having difficulty getting reimbursement from former clients. In small villages, asking for reimbursement might sound rude, especially when your best clients are neighbors and family. Before the repetitive Lebanese wars, Habib used to own 12 shops. Habib has lost a lot and, adding to it, there has been much theft. Indeed, all this has affected a lot his business. All through the situation, Habib has remained a tough man and he is planning, in the future, to open a mini market, rather than another grocery shop, because he wants to expand his business and diversify his merchandise.

12 months loan from Al Majmoua Lebanese Association for Development, Lebanon (4*)
1075 $ left to fund

[Elizabeth]

Good to see you on this loan, Elizabeth! 

That's one of the things that drew me to it. There are so many people affected by the ongoing wars in Lebanon (one of my best friends included) that my heart goes out to them. Thanks, Glenda, for joining me! 

[Jan & John]

No matter how bad things get for us in this 'economic downturn'...
or whatever terms are used to describe it tomorrow...

It will be far, far worse for our Kiva borrowers. 
That's why we are here, folks

jan

[Mona]

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=75928&_tpos=1&_tpg=1


Mrs. Dominga Agan lives in a small nipa (palm leaf) house in Barangay Danao, one of the depressed coastal areas in the Municipality of Plaridel. She was married as young as 16 years old and had three kids. Two of her kids worked at the fishing ferryboat, while the other one was disabled by polio and died when he was still young. In 2007, her husband died and she received a full insurance benefit from Paglaum MPC. Her main source of income is derived from the selling of fresh fish. Being a member in good standing, she always pays attention to her loans. She wants financial assistance amounting to PHP 13,000.00 for the purchase of a fishing net. Through this project, she dreams of obtaining additional income in order to repair her house and for their daily needs.

9 months loan from PMPC, Philippines (3*)
225 $ left to fund

[Evelyn Yvonne Theriault]

Mona,
These are such uplifting stories in the ways that they demonstrate the heroism of everyday people as they fight to overcome many types of adversity ... and the stories also touch on important social justice issues such as the availablity of health care.
I look forward to learning more - and my Ethics & Religion students will definitely be consulting your thread.
Evelyn

[Mona]

Another very touching single parent story.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=77051&_tpos=14&_tpg=1


Mary is a leader of 5 members of a group. She is a 60-year-old single mother. She had three children but all died and Mary takes care of the four orphans of her late children. She resides in and owns a five-roomed house where she is staying with five people and only two people bring in additional income to the family. They have electricity and piped water at home. The family gets three meals a day.

Mary works in a semi-urban area which is in the outskirts of Kampala. She doesn’t use public transport as she buys from delivery vans, and also there is depot nearby. She operates a pub at her home. Mary sells to an average of 20 customers a day and works seven days a week. Mary sells to all categories of people, excluding children under 18 years. Mary has been in this business for over ten years. She owns a bakery in the village, besides the pub business. She has been with MCDT for eight years working all this time with the same group mates and servicing her twentieth loan. Mary wants to use this loan to buy more crates of soda, boxes of mineral water and beers and necklaces. She is aspiring to build rental rooms in the plot she bought from previous loans.

5 months loan from MCDT, Uganda (4*)
1225 $ left to fund

[Mona]

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=76992&_tpos=3&_tpg=1


Charles is 47 years old. He began his business in 2001 selling containers of 25 liters of palm oil. He started with 40 containers of 25 liters of palm oil. In 2002, the main Matadi Road that linked Kinshasa to the village where Charles used to purchase palm oil was washed out, blocking access to his supply of palm oil. Charles got stuck the other side of the washed-out road, together with all his goods, for four months. Some of his goods spoiled and he lost much money.

When he returned to Kinshasa in 2003, Charles did not have enough capital to re-vitalize his business. He then decided to begin doing interior decoration of people’s houses which allowed him to have some capital to open a general store. Charles now wants to develop his decorating business by purchasing some appropriate tools for interior decoration. He is also planning to diversify his general store by adding fresh foods.

3 months loan from HOPE DRC, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3*)
1925 $ left to fund

[Mona]

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=74054&_tpos=1&_tpg=1


Born on 1 December 1973, Mr. Yaovi HIHEAKEDO is married and has 3 children, all in school. He is a poultry farmer whose yield has recently become low due to the avian flu, which has destroyed a large portion of his poultry. In the hope of changing his business, he is asking for a loan in order to buy a new motorcycle and to turn it into a motorcycle taxi, which is a flourishing business sector these days. This loan will allow him to have a more stable profession and meet the needs of his family, and thus change his current standard of living. Let us help him get out of the crisis situation he has been in following the avian flu.

18 months loan from Microfund Togo (4*)
1025 $ left to fund

[Mona]

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=77694&_tpos=1&_tpg=1


Rosa is 53 years old, married, and has three beautiful children, aged 12, 15, and 20 years old, who attend school. Her husband and two eldest children help her in her work after class. She makes cups, plates glasses, and similar items out of plastic. She started this business 15 years ago with a loan. Recently, there was a fire in the market where many of her clients sell and she has had difficulties recovering her losses as the shopkeepers who were injured have been unable to pay her. Due to these circumstances, she is asking for this, her third loan request to Afodenic as they offer low interest rates and provide opportunities. She will invest the loan in the infrastructure of her workplace, specifically in extending the roof, in order to improve working conditions. As she is starting from nothing once again, in the long term she plans to be able to produce many more items and obtain better results by enlarging her premises.

9 months loan from AFODENIC, Nicaragua (4*)
200 $ left to fund