Happy Kiva Repayments Day!

La Excelencia en Cristo Group
in the Dominican Republic 

It's the 17th of the month again so I am excitedly watching my Kiva loan repayments coming in and deciding to whom I will relend the money this month. If you don't already know about Kiva, it is a kind of middleman microlending organisation which enables lenders and borrowers across the world to find each other. I have been lending on Kiva for nearly four years now and am proud to have made 142 loans helping businesswomen in 60 different countries.

This month I have lent to:

La Excelencia en Cristo Group in the Dominican Republic
Refane and her group, La Excelencia en Cristo (pictured above), live and work in a rural community, called a batey, located in the eastern region of the Dominican Republic. Bateys are often located in the middle of vast sugarcane fields and function around the rise and falls of the harvest or dead season. In times where there is not much opportunity for work in the fields, Refane and her group depend on their small businesses to create an extra income source and balance out the cycles of agrarian life.

Aye Mi's Group in Myanmar

Aye Mi's Group in Myanmar 

Aye Mi is 28 years old and lives in Than-Ban-Chaung Village. She is a tailor and makes clothes for men and women. She has worked in this job for the last 10 years. She is proud of being a tailor because it's her own business, she's really interested in sewing, and she is very happy in cutting and designing clothes for customers. Every year, especially in March, she is very busy sewing Myanmar traditional wedding dresses for the customers who have their wedding ceremonies. She uses the profit from her business for her family's nutrition, to buy accessories for her shop and saves some money for future plans.

Arevik in Armenia 

Arevik in Armenia
Arevik is 33 years and is a old retailer from Kapan. Arevik, together with her family, runs a stall where she sells fruits and vegetables. This stall is her family's main source of income. Arevik shares her living with her husband, 2 kids and parents-in-law. Arevik's stall stands out among others with affordable prices as well as polite service. Arevik has many customers and loves what she does for a living. She applied for this loan to pay for a stock of fruits and vegetables to sell on her stall. This will give her a chance to attract more clients and improve her family's accommodation.

Why not join me on Kiva and help out too?