Priscilla Aboringong

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

Priscilla has been buying and selling clothes and dresses. She purchased them from either Douala (a six hour bus ride) or Bafoussam (a two hour bus ride). Usually she will go to Douala and purchase a large bag of clothing for 50,000 CFA ($100 USD). She has to pay a customs duty of 10,000 CFA plus a transport cost of 5,000 CFA totalling a cost of $30 USD. She also pays 12,000 CFA ($24 USD) for her stall for one year in the main market in Bamenda. She can sell one bag in two to three weeks for around 75,000 CFA, giving her a profit of 10,000 CFA ($20 USD). Every day either she or her daughter is there selling the dresses.

Priscilla gave her son 150,000 CFA ($300 USD) from this loan. With that money, he was able to open a workshop where he sells cameras and TVs. He pays her 10,000 CFA ($20 USD) per month. When Priscilla is not at her shop, she is working at her farm. She grows yams, cassava, and potatoes there. The amount she works on her farm every week just depends on how much there is to do; sometimes she will go four times a week in the morning before going to the market to sell dresses. She sells her crops on Saturdays at her stall; in one Saturday she can make 4,000 CFA ($8 USD). She does not have any pigs right now because of African swine fever, a disease which affects pigs in this area.

Priscilla's husband is retired now and they still have 3 children living in the house. They have raised eight children together. One is in high school and one is in secondary school now. She says that GHAPE has really helped her to care for her children well. "Thank you, GHAPE make me hard. Before we remain sitting and not doing, now working and active with my children. I am working together with my family now," she said. She thanks all those that contributed to her loan and hopes they will continue to support her.

About GHAPE:

GHAPE clients are required to join groups of five for both support, as well as to cross guarantee one another's loans. Clients also undergo training throughout their time with GHAPE. The first training sessions occurs before a client is given his or her loan; the sessions focus on business management, finance skills, starting an income generating activity, basic health practices, gender mainstreaming, group dynamics and understanding GHAPE policies. The second session of training occurs after a client has successfully repaid their first loan. This session focuses on understanding different possibilities for income generating activities, marketing and management techniques, expansion and growth, profit and loss accounting, and gender issues. Ideas and experiences are exchanged between entrepreneurs, while GHAPE credit assistants offer suggestions and direct the sessions. The following phases of training focus on business and marketing techniques, project cycles, fundraising, financial markets and problems faced and potential solutions.

GHAPE also requires clients to make small payments towards their personal savings. The required minimum for savings is quite small; however, most clients choose to save much more than the minimum requirement. Clients then have access to this savings account in case of any sort emergency. Clients of GHAPE also have access to the revolving "Emergency Fund". Each center has access to 40,000 CFA for this fund; in case of emergency or for health reasons, a client can request a sum from this account. GHAPE allows the clients one month to pay it back with no interest. This fund has helped many clients pay hospital fees and pay school fees when they may not have the savings to do so.

GHAPE tries to instil a sense of community within its centers; upon entering a room, one must say "If we are together," to which all clients reply "We are one." If one of the clients passes away, it is mandatory for all clients in the deceased center to attend the funeral. GHAPE believes that ignorance is one of the key contributors to poverty and attempts to remove this ignorance from all of its clients. This is done through training sessions on business management, health, education, importance of family and gender empowerment, as well as through the bi monthly meetings where clients discuss health, business and family issues with one another. The clients of GHAPE are always very grateful for their loans; however it is the training sessions, center meetings, and group support that allows the clients to invest their loans profitably and improve their living standards. Go to their website now at www.ghape.org