Kiva Entrepreneur Monica from

http://www.kiva.org - Kiva lets you make a loan to a specific low-income entrepreneur -- empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.

Monica Okwach, Kenya, Arts: Crafts
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=113024

Monica Okwach is the mother of five children and grandmother to ten children. She is unsure of her age, but guestimated (off-camera) it's around 70. She sells reed mats and vegetables in Dunga Beach, about 5 kms outside of Kisumu. She will use the loan to buy more bamboo for weaving and to buy more vegetables. Her main challenge is short finances and she sometimes must use her own vegetable stock, normally used for selling, for food. Her hope for the future is to receive a loan and improve her lifestyle. This is her first loan.

In this video, you can hear the interviewer greet Monica saying "Idhi Nade" -- which is Luo for "How are you?" Monica responds, "Adhi maber," meaning "very good." Most people living in Kisumu descend from the Luo tribe, the same tribe as Obama's father. At the end, the interviewer fluctuates between Kiswahili and Luo, saying "Asante Sana" in Kiswahili, meaning "Thank you," and "Erokamano," which in Luo means "thank you." The voices in the background are people coming for a weekly K-MET borrower meeting. To see what one looks like, check out the first video in this blog post: http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/05/14/m-banking/


K-MET, the NGO giving the loan, is unique in that it is not a traditional MFI. Rather, it is a development corporation focused on raising health standards in Kenya. To read more about K-METs work, please click here: http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=24

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Kisumu Medical & Educ...
• Kenya
• Kiva
• kiva.org
• microfinance
• micro-lending
• micro-loan
• poverty