Magdalene Sirri

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Magdalene Sirri by GHAPE in Cameroon. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 24 - 30 months, GHAPE will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

This is an update on your loan to Magdalene Sirri in Cameroon. I’m excited to

be writing you as the Kiva Fellow in Bamenda, Cameroon. Over the next 2 months I will be witnessing firsthand the impact and realities of microfinance while working with Kiva’s Field Partner, Grounded and Holistic Approach for People’s Empowerment (GHAPE). As you may know, all entrepreneur profiles on Kiva's website are posted by local Field Partners (microfinance institutions), which are organizations that lend to the poor for poverty alleviation. The role of a Field Partner is to screen each

entrepreneur, upload his/her loan request on the Kiva website, disburse the loan, and collect loan repayments. In my role, I will be visiting many Kiva entrepreneurs and businesses and training GHAPE staff in writing updates for Kiva lenders. As a result, many of you will receive an update on an entrepreneur who received a loan contribution

from you. Unfortunately, due to the logistical and administrative constraints, reaching every entrepreneur for an update is not possible, even with the team of 9 people at GHAPE who are dedicated to providing Kiva with photos and other content. Whether or not we provide an update on an entrepreneur to whom you loaned, I hope that you will enjoy the story of one Kiva borrower in the North West Province of Cameroon that, to me, illustrates the togetherness and unity that is the inspiration for Kiva’s Swahili name.

Mrs. Sirri is the mother of one of the GHAPE staff. She has been part of GHAPE for 9 years now, longer than her son has been a loan officer with the Microfinance Institute. The most recent of 9 Empowerment Credits (loans) that Mrs. Sirri has received was for 600,000 FCFA ($1500 USD) and she used a large part of that to buy a motorcycle that she rents out to a motorcycle-taxi driver. 450,000 FCFA ($1125 USD) was spent on the motorcycle and the rest of the loan went towards her cassava farm. Magdalene makes Gari, grated and dried cassava root that is sold to make a component of the local Cameroonian food. She sells her Gari at the Bush market and from her doorstep. The bike is rented out six days per week for 3,000 FCFA ($7.50 USD) per day.

Mrs. Magdalene has been a widow for 18 years. She is about 50 years old and has six children and eighteen grandchildren. “I have only me for house. GHAPE fine, ye helep (help), as I come this GHAPE, ye give small money and ton-ton, ton-ton I pay back small small. Ye no vex me (trouble me), I manage em fine,” says Mrs. Sirri with a smile.

With Magdalene's last loan she purchased a bike for 450,000 CFA ($900 USD) as well as all the documents and registration for the bike for 70,000 CFA ($140 USD). She is now being paid 3,000 CFA ($6 USD) per day. Even with these relatively high payments, she has found that she is not making any profit as she has had to constantly repair the bike.

Magdalene also ran into some problems with her pigs; she was forced to sell all 6 pigs for between 3000 and 5000 CFA ($6 USD and $10 USD). This is far below the price she paid originally for them; she sustained losses on not only the price of the pigs, but also on the cost of pig feed. Unfortunately, while she was out of the home, some thieves broke the fence around her pig pen. Her neighbour heard the thieves breaking the fence to try to steal the pigs and came out to scare them away. Instead of just running, the thieves killed all the pigs and then ran, leaving the dead pigs in their pen. All the pigs died and she was forced to sell them for a very low price.

On Magdalene's farm, she grows yams and cassava. She recently bought seeds to plant more. She is currently making around 5,000 CFA ($10 USD) per week on her yams alone and looks forward to her harvesting in a few months to increase this amount. For cassava to be ready to harvest it can take one and a half years to two years to grow.

Magdalene has six children, two of which are living with her now and learning trades. She also has four grandchildren living with her; she pays all the costs including school fees and books for these grandchildren.

Since joining GHAPE, Magdalene says she has seen a lot of changes in her life. The past few months have been really challenging for her with her bike problems and thieves. She says "Change be there, money too high for me now [referring to her payments]. Bought machine but now doesn't work. Worry be plenty this time." She hopes to sell her bike and purchase a new one with her next loan and possibly sell used clothing as some of the other women have begun to do in her center. She says to all those that helped give her last loan "Thank them! They really help me. Thank them plenty."

Go to www.ghape.org to learn more about GHAPE.