Yorleny Andrade Tenorio

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Yorleny Andrade Tenorio by EDESA in Costa Rica. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 24 months of this loan, EDESA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Yorleny recently received her loan from EDESA (Kiva’s field partner in Costa Rica) and is excited to invest in her business. She and her husband own a small plot of land and within the last year Yorleny decided to start a plant nursery. She was interested in establishing a reliable source of income and recognized local demand for citrus fruits and ornamental plants. She is, therefore, investing her loan in things like seeds and organic fertilizer to expand the quantity and variety of plants she grows in her nursery.

Yorleny reports that the nursery is still quite new, but she is very excited to establish her own business. In addition to working in her nursery, Yorleny is currently studying to complete her high school degree, which she was not able to do earlier because of financial and time constraints. She and her husband also completed building a small house in the last year, partially with the help of microloans such as this one from Kiva. Yorleny has received several small loans in the past and she proudly reports that she has always repaid on time and is confident about her payments for this loan.

When asked what her goals are, Yorleny says that she hopes this investment will help increase her income so she can better cover household expenses. She is also planning to be able to start a savings account. Overall she hopes to improve the quality of life and opportunities available to her young son Kevin.

Please click on the below video to see a short clip of Yorleny thanking Kiva lenders.

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Since her last update, Yorleny has continued expanding her nursery, she has a number of different plants, some of which, like Tempinski, are close to extinction in Costa Rica. She also grows other plants and vegetables,including Cocoa, Cedro, and Guaba. With the Kiva loan she has purchased everything that she wanted to, except saran material which she will purchase in the summer.

The business is going well and Yorleny is confident that she wont encounter any repayment problems. She is very pleased as she recently sold a plot of the nursery to a professor at the University of Upala, a nearby town.

Yorleny uses worms to make her own organic soil from manure, a very economical process. However, the soil is currently made in makeshift wood and plastic containers in a hut of the same materials, and Yorleny hopes that when the business expands and she has access to more resources, she will be able to make new ones from cement and build a better roof.

Yorleny is still studying and expects to finish her education next year. The education in Costa Rica is free but she needs to pay for her exams and her own books. Yorleny is still young and hopes to go into a profession in the future that will help her to provide for her son Kevin, almost three years old.

Yorleny gives thanks to Kiva lenders who have allowed her to excel and better herself; the loan has been a great help.

Below is a photo collage to show clockwise from left; the cocoa plants, the organic soil Yorleny makes in wood and plastic containers, a variety of plants in the nursery, the rare Tempinski, and her beautiful house that microloans have helped to finance through the nursery project, mentioned in her previous journal update.

Please join EDESA's Lending Team to receive updates on the excellent work they are doing here in Costa Rica, read more about EDESA and their network of Community Credit Enterprises, and check in often to see any currently fundraising loans for entrepreneurs like Yorleny in Costa Rica.