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Cirila is 56 years old and lives in San Antonio de la Balsa, San Ignacio, Cajamarca, Perú. She earns her living growing organic coffee here. Cirila will invest the loan in weeding, pruning and buying manure for her coffee crops. This will increase and improve the quality of her production for the next coffee season generating income which will allow her to improve her quality of living.

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 I am glad that Kiva lets me loan to someone in the United States.

Doretha is an elderly grandmother who is trying to live independently in her home. Doretha is surviving on a fixed income, but has done very well with maintaining her expenses and ensuring that she does not over-extend herself financially.

Despite this, due to her fixed income, she has had difficulty trying to secure the remaining funds needed to replace her roof. The roof is currently well past its expected life and is currently in poor shape. She currently has some funds available, but not enough to fully complete her project.

She is hoping that SELF and Kiva will help her secure a loan that will fit into her tight budget to pay for the remainder of her project.

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Annita is from Uganda.

Annita, born 40 years ago, is a female Ugandan who lives in Naluvule-Wakiso district. She is a proud mother of 3 children aged 15, 10 and 8 years respectively. As most women, she had viable business ideas but had no knowledge on how to initiate and sustain viable business activities, not until she joined Ugafode and attained training on how to manage profitable business activities.

She appreciates the support of funders who funded her previous 5 loans of 2,000,000 UGX, 3,000,000 UGX (2 times), 4,000,000 UGX and 5,000,000 UGX, respectively. She now wants another loan of 5,000,000 UGX to restock her business with beauty products, now that the customer base has increased because of her exceptional customer service.

I chose this loan because Shallon, my Compassion daughter in Uganda, left the program to start her own beauty business and while I can't give to her, maybe I can help this woman.

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Nadia is from Lebanon.

Nadia is a 47-year-old married mother of seven children. She is acquiring this loan to pay the school tuition fees for two of her children featured with her in the picture.

The loan is part of Al Majmoua's Back to School program, designed to finance school expenses such as books, stationery, transportation and fees for students with low family incomes. Funds can be used for partial or complete payment of school expenses.

By supporting this loan, you're enabling access to education for students with limited options. Nadia hopes to stay capable of providing her children with their necessary living needs and developing their social situation.

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Putting my money where my mouth is.  I have many times expressed concern about the lack of sanitation facilities for people.  Now I've found someone who wants a loan to make life cleaner for her family.

Sati is in Indonesia.  She is 31 years old, married, and has two daughters. Sati has been selling vegetables such as carrots, spinach, tomatoes, chilies, and others for ten years. Her husband works very hard, and he has been an employee in the Tangerang District for one year. They would like to improve their living conditions and create happy and healthy lives for their kids.

She has asked for a loan of 6,400,000 IDR from KSPPS BMI. This loan will be used to build a clean sanitation facility at their home to improve access to sanitation for their family. Today her family has no access to a toilet in their home and must rely on the river for bathing. Her family income is insufficient to build toilets, but Sati will be able to repay the loan received.

She and her family want to live a healthy life with clean sanitation. She is very grateful for the opportunity and wants to thank all lenders.

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Priscillah from Kenya

Priscillah, at heart, is a resourceful, loving mum. Her motherly love has been enough to show her family that she is willing to work hard to help her family get ahead with excellent values and education.

Priscillah is a smallholder farmer in the Kerugoya area of Kenya. She also does some side hustle business. In the past six years, she has bred more than one dairy cow and has developed her farm.

Because of how much she likes farming, she has even nicknamed one of her cows. She is a very proud farmer, especially when she is milking her cows. Through her dairy cow, she is able to get 5-10 litres a day, and this helps her support her family.

Priscillah also practices crop farming, but she has not been making good profits because of poor farming implements. This is why she is kindly seeking a loan to buy farm implements.

Through the loan, she will be able to buy high-quality seeds, good fertilizer and pesticides that she will use to greatly improve her crop production.

Modern farming requires the use of modern techniques; using high-quality seeds will assure her of a bumper harvest and hence, increased profit levels. Priscillah is visionary and her goal for the season is to boost her crop production and be able to get more crop output than the previous year. All this can be achieved through lenders’ help and goodwill.

Priscillah believes that through the loan, she will turn around her family life and be able to give her children a solid educational background.

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Doreen from Kenya

Doreen is kind-hearted, well organized, honest, industrious and entrepreneurial. She is a mother who makes sure her two children never go to bed hungry. She hails from the Ingaa, Chuka area of Kenya. Doreen never got the opportunity to advance her education and get a white-collar job, but this did not kill her dream of wanting to succeed in life.

Doreen has been doing farming for the past six years. Throughout those years, she has gathered much experience and learned important farming techniques. She practices dairy and mixed farming on her farm and through the profits, she has managed to take care of her family's needs and give her children a good education. Doreen believes that education is the key to success.

She is seeking a loan of KES 150,000 to buy seeds and start horticulture farming on her farm, and also to build a modern dairy unit. Doreen wants to take advantage of favorable weather patterns, a good road network in her village, good soil and a ready market for horticulture products, and reap more profits. Through the loan she will be able to build a modern dairy unit, which will help prevent her cow from harsh weather conditions, and also she will have a humble time milking the cows.

Juhudi Kilimo is partnering with Kiva and Kiva lenders to help hardworking women like Doreen to make their farming dreams come to reality through training and loan financing. She hopes that through the loan, she will improve her living conditions. Doreen’s dreams and projections are that by the end of the second quarter in 2016, she will not only be selling in the local market, but will also be selling in international markets through exporting fruits and vegetables. Through this, she will be able to assure her children a secure future and uninterrupted learning, because she will be able to pay tuition fees on time.

Doreen is not a self-centered woman who only thinks of herself. She will also want to impact positively on society. That is why she will employ people to work for her on her horticulture farm and have an impact on society. Be part of this beautiful dream by helping Doreen with the loan she needs. 

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I decided that I would help someone in the U.S. this time.

Osmiry has been in business for the past two years. She is originally from the Dominican Republic and is the proud owner of JJO Transport LLC, a transportation and trucking business that does long-haul delivery jobs for dry goods.

Osmiry moved to Perth Amboy and quickly obtained her first job as a school bus driver. Osmiry learned about the trucking business from when a friend of hers asked her to fill in as a helper with one of her trucks. After a year of helping, she took a position as a full-time driver. She saved as much as possible in order to purchase her first truck at the beginning of 2015.

Over the last two years, Osmiry has grown her business so that it employs four people, all of whom are proud parents and community members. Her business now contracts with Amazon, and this Kiva loan will help Osmiry put another truck on the road and hire another driver, which will increase the impact her business has on the community. It will also help her business continue to thrive so that she can support her fiance and two children at home.

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Sidi, Kenya

Sidi is married and has four children all of whom attend school. She owns a house that neither has electricity nor piped water. Her greatest monthly expenses are food and school fees.

For the past five years, she has owned a food stall business, for neighbours and town dwellers. She faces a major challenge of fluctuations in number of clients hence perishable of goods leading to losses.

With the Kshs 50,000 she wants to purchase stock of goods like sugar, rice, maize and wheat flour and cooking fat oil. She dreams of expanding to a modern café in the business

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Teresa from Kenya

Teresia has lived in Mukuru Kayaba for fifteen years. It is here that she has raised her three children and established her micro-enterprises of water vending and a retail shop.

In her area, there are no decent toilets. Her family and community use makeshift options, often located by the Nairobi riverbed.

At night, due to insecurity, these facilities are not accessible particularly by women and girls for fear of rape. She learnt about Fresh Life Toilets through the sales associates at Fresh Life and is determined to join the movement by acquiring one Fresh Life Toilet.

She sees this as an opportunity to provide a sanitary and safer toilet option for her family and neighboring community at all times.

Ultimately she hopes her work contributes towards a cleaner environment free of flying toilets along Kayaba pathways.

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Margaret, from Kenya

 Adding to my cattle herd!

Margaret is 44 years old and married to Monubi. They are blessed with four children aged 23, 19, 16 and 13 years old. She has been a dairy farmer for the last 12 years and earns a monthly income of KES 10,000.

She has applied for her first loan of KES 25,000 from VisionFund Kenya to buy a dairy cow and stock of napier grass feeds for the dairy cows in order to increase milk production. This will satisfy her customers' demand for milk.

With the anticipated profits she will be able to repay her loan and educate her children.

Her hopes are to be financially stable and start a milk shop.

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Kellen, from Uganda

Kellen is a hard working lady, age 40, hailing from the village of Biharwe in Kashari Mbarara district. She is a widow and has a kiosk selling juice and water.

She has been an ardent customer of UGAFODE since 2003. She is so appreciative of the services because it has brought her a long way. She has managed to grow her business, pay tuition as well complete a residential house for her fatherless children. Because of her trustworthiness and the loan of 3,000,000 UGX, which she previously received from Ugafode, her business grew to a bigger retail shop. This enabled her to construct some houses which will help her get income to pay tuition for her growing children. She is therefore applying for this loan to complete her houses.

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Continuing to build my world-wide cattle herd!

From the district of Korca in Albania, Aferdita is a 41-year-old mother of two children, a 21-year-old and a 15-year-old. She currently has four dairy cows. She also grows lucerne (alfalfa) barley and corn.

Aferdita has found dairy cows profitable, and the farm that she sells the raw milk to is not far from her home, therefore minimizing her transportation costs. She has requested this loan to add two more cows to the herd.

Says Aferdita: “I love animals and many times I find myself talking to them non-stop and it is funny. I love looking after them and their babies when they’re born. I have been doing this for a long time now and never get bored.”

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Hello World! Meet Rebecca. She is a true definition of a strong, spirited, young, dark, Kisii lady from Kenya. At only 32 years old, the single mother of one is a Branch Manager leading the oldest and most established office at Juhudi Kilimo. Passion, respect and integrity are the key values she upholds and that have got her this far. Her achievements have also been catapulted by her impeccable people skills. In the office, she is well-liked and respected.

Rebecca, however, hails from a very humble and traditional background. It is amazing how far she has got herself today. She is from Riabamanyi, a small remote village in the Central Kisii district of Kenya. Most of the people there are smallholder farmers who occupy small plots of land and practice subsistence farming.

Rebecca grew up fighting so many social and personal battles that only few can relate to. For example, Riabamanyi village has a social codification that invariably colludes with patriarchy to oppress women, through cultural identities that advantage men and disadvantage women. Rebecca was really determined to move against this and to thrive in a community where girls are regarded with less value and not given equal opportunities to succeed.
In her life’s journey, she has dealt with the pain of losing her mother, an elder brother and an elder sister. The two deceased siblings left behind four orphaned children. Being the only employed member in the family, she took the responsibility of looking after these children. Just recently, Rebecca’s world came crumbling down again after her father became paralyzed. She is grateful to God, however, that she still has him as part of her life. She is doing her best to provide him with the best medication she can afford. With all these burdens on her shoulders, Rebecca still manages to keep herself together and strive for excellence in life.

She is seeking a loan of KES 438,100 for higher education. A degree in Business Management will help her to increase her business skills: leadership, interpersonal communication, technology and other valuable hard skills in the business environment.

When Rebecca joined Juhudi Kilimo in 2010 as an Office Assistant, she was still a student. She used her monthly stipend to contribute to the tuition fees for a diploma in Business Management. In no time, she was promoted to become a Business Development Officer. She did a superb job as a BDO which led management to entrust her with more responsibilities of leading a Branch. Joining management has exposed her to a set of new challenges that have enabled her to identify some gaps which she seeks to fill through furthering her studies.

Rebecca says; “My zest is in helping farmers to become more productive and successful. By helping them to improve their enterprise, I am changing their lives. With your loan investment in my education, I promise to use the acquired knowledge and skills to become a better manager and deliver the promise of a better life to our farmers.”

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Lewnida lives in Magunga, a small town in Homa Bay County. Homa Bay County is located in southwestern Kenya and borders on Lake Victoria, the second-largest lake in the world. Populations are dense close to the lake, where many individuals make their living from fishing, and a few work in the small but slowly growing tourism industry. A popular tourist attraction in Homa Bay County is Ruma National Park, a game reserve that is home to the rare roan antelope, a shy species distantly related to the reticulated giraffe. Most people in Homa Bay make their living from farming, and the rolling hills of the area are dotted with fields and fruit tree plantations.

Lewnida is a widow with nine children. She is a farmer. She has been farming for twenty years now, and she is currently growing maize, beans, green grams, sorghum and groundnuts. Lewnida is excited about beekeeping, as it will earn her some income from the sale of honey, because it is an easy project to undertake, and it has a ready market.

This is Lewnida’s first loan with Honey Care. She plans to use the proceeds from her beehives to pay school fees for her children. Lewnida’s hope for the future is to invest in business and have an economic change in her life.

I chose her because ... my god... Nine children!!!  She needs help.

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Shahanik is a hardworking woman from Garnarij village of Shirak region of Armenia. She lives there with her husband and 20-year-old daughter.

Shahanik is involved in animal husbandry. She keeps five cows, 22 calves, 19 sheep, piglets and 15 chickens. Shahanik sells the gathered milk and meat in local markets and that's the only source of family's income.

The loan of USD 3,000 will be a very big support for Shahanik to purchase 10 calves and fuel for land cultivation needed for her farm. As this is Shahanik's first loan, it has been approved within the framework of the new joint initiative between Kiva and SEF. The first-chance loan program provides loans to people who didn’t have access to credit products in the past because they have no credit history.

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To celebrate my 71st birthday, I've made a new Kiva Loan,continuing to build my herd of cattle in Kyrgyzstan. Besides, who could resist that cute grin.

Anipa is 61 years old and a widow, who raises three children by herself. After the death of her husband, Anipa for a long time thought she would not be able to survive the loss of her loved one. She had to raise and support her children, and Anipa decided to take on the financial and household responsibility by herself. Anipa has secondary education.

As a main source of income for her family, Anipa works with livestock breeding and field crop cultivation, after having started 14 years ago with the purchase of livestock for 7,000 som (KGS). Thanks to Anipa's persistent work, her farm currently has four dairy cows and 10 sheep. She also has a plot of land of 1.56 hectares, on which she grows barley, wheat and hay. She has all conditions for breeding cattle, having harvested 200 pieces of pressed hay and 1.5 tons of barley. The monthly income is 10,000 som (KGS).

With an aim to further develop her business, Anipa turned to the bank "Bai Tushum" for a loan to purchase cows to fatten and subsequently resell at the market at a higher price. Anipa plans to invest the income from the loan in further increasing the number of livestock, and intends to save money for repairing her house.

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 Janet is a twenty-nine-year-old married woman with two children, living in Kasese, Uganda. She sells cosmetics and she started the business after realizing that the meager salary that she earns as a teacher can hardly meet her family's needs. Inadequate capital and the high cost of rent are her major challenges, while her dream is to trade in wholesale. Janet intends to use the loan to buy cosmetics to sell. 

I chose this loan because my Compassion daughter Shallon recently gave up a year of education, preparing to be a teacher, because she needed to earn money to help her sister, who was sick...so she went into the cosmetics business.  I felt Janet needed encouragement.  (And Shallon will return to her studies to be a teacher)

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Adding to my cattle herd in Kyrgyzstan.

Elmira is 44 years old, married, and raising three children with her husband. She has a specialized-secondary education and is involved in animal husbandry, an activity which provides her family with its main source of income. She started in this business 16 years ago with the purchase of livestock for 20,000 som (KGS).

Thanks to Elmira's hard work, her farming business now comprises two dairy cows and ten sheep. She makes a monthly income of 5,000 som (KGS).

In order to further develop her animal husbandry business, Elmira has turned to the microfinance bank "Bai Tushum & Partners" and requested a loan of 80,000 som (KGS). She will use this loan to buy some cows for breeding.

Elmira plans to re-invest some of her profits back into her business by purchasing additional livestock. She is also planning to save enough money to buy a car.

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Mirzaim is a 62-year-old widow from Kyrgyszstan. Following the death of her husband, she alone raises her 6 children and tends to her farm. She has a high school education, and the brunt of her income comes from raising livestock, having started 10 years ago with 12,000 somoni worth of animals. Thanks to her persistent efforts, her farm currently has 1 dairy cow, 1 bull, and 1 calf. Her monthly income is 8,000 somoni. To further develop her farm, Mirzaim is seeking a loan in the amount of 120,000 somoni from Bai Tushum & Partners to buy more cows for her farm. She plans to reinvest the additional income that the loan will allow her to buy even more livestock.

I admit to choosing her because she has a nice face--and I LOVED the cow!