Joao Francisco Chaia

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Joao Francisco Chaia by FDM (Fundo De Desenvolvimento Mulher) in Mozambique. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 5 - 11 months, FDM (Fundo De Desenvolvimento Mulher) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I was able to visit Joao the other day and check-in with him to see how his poultry business was doing. The chicken coops are miles away from the nearest bus stop, so he was kind enough to borrow someone’s motorbike and pick myself and the loan officer up to visit his business. When we arrived, he was quick to invite us inside the small chicken coop as he explained to us what he has to do everyday when it comes to feeding and taking care of his estimated 500 chickens.

Joao is fifty years old, and as explained before, married with five children (his oldest is 29 and his youngest is 2). He is also taking care of his parents and supports his younger siblings when they need his help. He currently owns and operates two different chicken coops, one of which is used to house smaller chicks and the second devoted to ones that are grown and ready to be sold. He buys the chickens from Xai-Xai (the nearest large city) for about 16 Meticais (about 60 US cents) and after they are grown is able to sell them for up to 90 Meticais. He rents a truck to transport new chickens from the city to his business.

While he owns this poultry business, Joao also has been working for World Vision since 1993 (his primary occupation) where he serves in their medical division. In fact, while he currently owns and operates these two chicken coups, he actually lives in a separate area of Chonguene, but has chosen to grow his business here so he can help support the infrastructure of specific area. Ultimately, he plans on giving the business he has built here to an employee who is HIV positive to help him earn his own income and become financially independent. At that point, Joao would like to go back home and build another poultry business there.

Joao used his first six loans from FDM to build the second of his two chicken coops as well as for buying more chickens, and is using this current loan to invest in the materials to build a third as well as purchasing more chicken feed and vaccines. As described before, he wants to use future loans to build another poultry business closer to his home. I feel lucky to have been given the chance to meet him, and I can't wait to watch his businesses grow!