Afer Gozelov

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Afer Gozelov by Aqroinvest CU in Azerbaijan. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 18 - 24 months, Aqroinvest CU will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Gozelov Afer Mirzaga oglu used his $1,100 Kiva loan to purchase two milk-giving cows, one of which, he happily reported, has already had a calf. The father of three in the Sabirabad region of Azerbaijan told us that business is “excellent” right now.

Gozelov is an Internally Displaced Person — a refugee in his own country, basically — as a result of Azerbaijan’s ongoing territorial conflict with neighboring Armenia. Despite that hardship, he has built a successful business for himself in part by selling the milk from his cows both as milk and as homemade yogurt to his neighbors, as well as to the local milk factory. The milk fetches .6 Azeri Manat per liter, while the yogurt can get 1 Manat for a liter (1 AZN=1.24 USD). Each of his cows produces 10 liters of milk per day.

He was also working as a teacher, but quit 6 months ago to become a mechanic.

Right now, Gozelov’s total livestock count is 3 cows and 2 calves. In the future, he’d like to expand into the sheep business as well.

“I’m satisfied with this loan, with this organization,” he said in Azeri. “Let God help everyone for their help.”

He told us that he hopes his son (pictured) might grow up to become a doctor one day.