Foutoumata Diaw

Thank you to all funders from CRESP & the Senegal Eco-Village Microfinance Fund (SEM). First of all, some background on SEM. Currently all SEM's operations are run through CRESP Sengegal, an international NGO, however we are in the process of independently incorporating and gaining non-profit status in the US. Once this happens, our relationship with CRESP will remain intact, however SEM will be a stand alone entity which will help us to faciliate further capacity building and reach many more rural villages in Senegal. We started out small two years ago with the plan to add additional villages each year. SEM is funding Nder for the first time in 2006! We are extremely excited about adding Nder as the third village SEM is working in. We will be sending a team to Nder near the end of April to distribute the loans and assist individuals with the implementation of their business ideas if requested. More to come soon!

As we at SEM are still getting use to the kiva site, we inadvertently posted the Nder post in our Carabane page and vice versa. Thus here is our great news out of Nder: SEM Co-Founder Nan Guslander traveled to Senegal to visit the villages we operate in and helped to distribute the 2006 loans in Nder. We distributed the money to two women's groups. The money will be used for various microenterprises, both for individual  start ups and for bolstering existing enterprises. This is our first time lending money in Nder and we are extremely pleased to have funding from our wonderful partners at kiva and all the individual backers that make it possible!

The women of Nder have invested the loans they received this spring for a variety of small business activities.  June is the month when yams and peanuts are harvested in northern Senegal, and many of the women are using a portion of their loans to transport their yams to the markets of nearby towns, where the yams can be sold for a profit.  The Senegal River near Nder is home to a special type of sweet-smelling grass, from which the women of Nder produce mats and incense which are in demand as far away as Dakar.  Some loan recipients have opened small restaurants and food stands, and others have purchased young sheep and cows which produce milk and can be resold for a profit during local holidays such as Tabaski (Eid al Kabir), when each household sacrifices a sheep as part of the traditional celebrations. 

Ndeye Diaw, for example, works with a group of four women who pool their savings together to buy livestock.  Last year they bought a young sheep for $43, which they raised in the village and resold during the Tabaski holiday for $100.  Now Ndeye’s group has used the profit from that sale and from their new Kiva loans to purchase a young cow.

Magette Gaye Pilor used her Kiva loan to start a coffee and doughnut-selling business.  She purchased a little kerosene stove, some instant Nescafé, and a supply of flour, butter and sugar, and set up a stand in a shady spot on the path that leads out to the yam fields behind the village.  She now spends mornings there, preparing fresh doughnuts and coffee and selling them to the farmers who pass by. 

A third Kiva loan recipient, Mariam Sarr Diagne, operates a small restaurant in a homemade grass hut.  She prepares breakfast – coffee and French bread – in the morning, and in the evening she sells sandwiches and simple North African dishes such as couscous. 

Doing business in rural Senegal is not easy.  Transportation and communication facilities are poor, making it difficult for villagers to get goods to market and to predict the levels of demand for one’s products and competition one will face there.  Travel becomes especially difficult during the rainy season, when some roads are impassable due to flooding.  Nevertheless, the women of Nder have found that their microenterprises provide a fairly consistent stream of profit, which they use both for family expenses such as food, medicine, children’s clothing, school fees and materials, and also for reinvestment in further income-generating activities.    

 

Please note:  The agreement with the Femmes de Nder group was that they would repay the entire Kiva loan at the end of the borrowing period (January 2007) rather than in instalments.  The reason for this is that the group leader wishes to give each member the opportunity to borrow a small portion of the total loan amount for her own business activities, for a length of time that is less than the total nine-month term of the Kiva loan.  The individual will then repay the loan she has taken to the group fund, which will lend it in turn to another member.  Allowing the group to repay the entire loan at the end of the borrowing period in this way allows them to take turns borrowing, extending credit access to more members.

The women of Nder have invested the loans they received this spring for a variety of small business activities.  June is the month when yams and peanuts are harvested in northern Senegal, and many of the women are using a portion of their loans to transport their yams to the markets of nearby towns, where the yams can be sold for a profit.  The Senegal River near Nder is home to a special type of sweet-smelling grass, from which the women of Nder produce mats and incense which are in demand as far away as Dakar.  Some loan recipients have opened small restaurants and food stands, and others have purchased young sheep and cows which produce milk and can be resold for a profit during local holidays such as Tabaski (Eid al Kabir), when each household sacrifices a sheep as part of the traditional celebrations. 

Ndeye Diaw, for example, works with a group of four women who pool their savings together to buy livestock.  Last year they bought a young sheep for $43, which they raised in the village and resold during the Tabaski holiday for $100.  Now Ndeye’s group has used the profit from that sale and from their new Kiva loans to purchase a young cow.

Magette Gaye Pilor used her Kiva loan to start a coffee and doughnut-selling business.  She purchased a little kerosene stove, some instant Nescafé, and a supply of flour, butter and sugar, and set up a stand in a shady spot on the path that leads out to the yam fields behind the village.  She now spends mornings there, preparing fresh doughnuts and coffee and selling them to the farmers who pass by. 

A third Kiva loan recipient, Mariam Sarr Diagne, operates a small restaurant in a homemade grass hut.  She prepares breakfast – coffee and French bread – in the morning, and in the evening she sells sandwiches and simple North African dishes such as couscous. 

Doing business in rural Senegal is not easy.  Transportation and communication facilities are poor, making it difficult for villagers to get goods to market and to predict the levels of demand for one’s products and competition one will face there.  Travel becomes especially difficult during the rainy season, when some roads are impassable due to flooding.  Nevertheless, the women of Nder have found that their microenterprises provide a fairly consistent stream of profit, which they use both for family expenses such as food, medicine, children’s clothing, school fees and materials, and also for reinvestment in further income-generating activities.    

 

Please note:  The agreement with the Femmes de Nder group was that they would repay the entire Kiva loan at the end of the borrowing period (January 2007) rather than in instalments.  The reason for this is that the group leader wishes to give each member the opportunity to borrow a small portion of the total loan amount for her own business activities, for a length of time that is less than the total nine-month term of the Kiva loan.  The individual will then repay the loan she has taken to the group fund, which will lend it in turn to another member.  Allowing the group to repay the entire loan at the end of the borrowing period in this way allows them to take turns borrowing, extending credit access to more members.

Photo of Ndeye Diaw and cow, taken June 23, 2006.

Photo of Magette Gaye Pilor (far left) with doughnut stand, taken June 23, 2006.

Photo of Magette Gaye Pilor (far left) with doughnut stand, taken June 23, 2006.

Photo of Mariam Sarr Diagne in her village restaurant, taken June 23, 2006.

The growing season is coming to an end in Nder and the local crops – sweet potatoes, peanuts, and beans – have been harvested.  With most agricultural work over for a while, the women of Nder who have received Kiva loans are now turning their full attention to their small-scale trade and commercial activities.  

 

This month’s featured microentrepreneur is Ndèye Sall.  In addition to her usual activities buying and selling foodstuffs such as sugar, oil, and tomatoes, Ndèye has used her ingenuity and a loan from Kiva to put a new twist on the trading relationship that has existed for centuries between her village and the Moors who live on the other side of the nearby Senegal River.  Much of this cross-border trade has traditionally centered on the purchase of Mauritanian hartoum, a finely woven silk cloth that is very popular with the women of northern Senegal, who use it to make veils (see photo below).  However, modern Senegalese customs regulations have outlawed the private importation of goods from Mauritania, and border guards frequently catch would-be smugglers and confiscate their wares.  Since the customs officials lack the means to dispose of these goods themselves, Ndèye has arranged with a nearby customs office to purchase the confiscated hartoum cloth at a discount price.  She then offers it for sale at her village’s weekly market, earning a profit of 60% of the purchase price of the fabric.