A loan of $450 helped to purchase stocks of sugar, rice, maize flour and wheat flour.

Umazai,  a retailer in Kenya, was funded a microloan.

Here is Umazi’s Story

The sleepy coastal town of Tiribe, Kenya, is where Umazi and her family call home. She is married with three school-going children and lives in a house without running water or electricity. She does not have many expenses, with her greatest one being food for her family. She manages to meet all her needs through the retail business that she has been running in the town for a year now.

Through her business, friends and neighbors get easy access to goods such as wheat and maize flour, and sugar. She does face a few challenges in her business as well, with her main one being competition from the other retailers around. To help boost her business, Umazi joined the Yehu Microfinance Trust, and asked for a small loan that would enable her to purchase additional stock like rice and sugar for her store. The profits garnered from the additional stock would help her take better care of her family.

Locally, her loan was administered by the Yehu Microfinance Trust, a Kiva Partner and non-governmental organization whose main aim is to provide microfinance services to the poor and impoverished people of Kenya’s coastal region so that they can become economically independent. However, the organization does offer other services, including basic business skills training for their members so that they can learn how to run their businesses better.

Through Kiva and the Yehu Microfinance Trust, Umazi’s loan was fully funded. By providing low income earners with microfinance services, organizations like these, along with people who can provide aid, are helping to change the lives of thousands of underprivileged peoples.
One reason these partnerships work so well is because everyone involved would like to see lower income earners prosper and become economically self-reliant. To this end, Kiva brings people together, and the funds that these individuals provide are disbursed to needy applicants by organizations like the Yehu Microfinance trust.

Umazi is now on the way to taking her business to new heights. If you would like to have the same impact on a person’s life, why not visit www.kiva.org. They have a massive database of entrepreneurs who are in desperate need of funding so that they too can realize their dreams.

Notes
1.    This article is based on https://www.kiva.org/lend/839927

For the last 25 years, Dr. Joe Johnson has launched and funded over a dozen start-ups. Aside from being a start-up expert, he is also an entrepreneur and investor. Get to know him more when you follow this Twitter page.