Asha Hamadi

Mambo (greetings) from Tanzania! This is 34-year-old Asha R. Hamadi from Morogoro. She is married with four children between the ages of 2 and 15. Additionally, she is responsible for supporting two other dependents because they are orphans.

Asha has been running a café or local restaurant called a mama lishe since 2006. A mama lishe in Tanzania usually consists of a rough wooden table and some long wooden benches. The food is all local: rice, ugali (a hot sticky dough made from maize flour) and plantains (a cooked savory banana), all served with beans, vegetables, meat, and a variety of sauces.

She works at the business for eight hours per day, six days per week and is assisted by her husband. Asha is requesting a loan of 300,000 Tanzanian shillings in order to purchase additional stock of ingredients for her business. In the future, she plans to increase the quantity and range of stock. Asha thanks you for your support!

ABOUT SELFINA:

SELFINA has taken a lead role as a pioneer of micro-credit in Tanzania through micro-leasing. The organization is engaged in the economic empowerment of women in Tanzania through the provision of a leasing and leaseback micro-finance facility. Customs and traditions in Tanzania make it difficult for women to own land and assets, thus they are termed non-creditworthy by financial institutions. This leads to poor financial support and poor access to basic needs and services for women with low incomes. One of the primary advantages of micro-leasing is that is allows clients to use the equipment as collateral for future loans with SELFINA, thus enabling them to borrow larger sums in the future.