Rajabu Athuman

Dear lenders and Kiva Staff !

Thankyou for your efforts that made Rajabu loan 100% funded.We will keep you informed about the progress of this business.

Thankyou!

Rajubu Athuman’s women’s clothing business is doing well, thanks in part to the loan money she received from Kiva. I had a chance to visit with Rajubu when he came to make his loan payment at the Makangarawe community bank meeting place in the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Rajabu is an established business owner having been in business for 17 years. He shared with me that he used the loan money to purchase a sewing machine and more stock for his business and put the rest in savings. He now has two sewing machines so that he and his assistant can be repairing or tailoring clothes for their customers.

Unlike other store-based businesses in Dar, Rajabu is a traveling salesman selling to Tanzanians who live in the countryside. He will buy and mend lots of garments and then head inland to villages outside of Morogoro, Dodoma and Arusha and sell his clothes to farmers who have recently harvested their crops and have money to spend on new clothes. His busiest time is from June to December because that’s when most harvesting happens in Tanzania. When I talked to him he was preparing to leave on a trip the following week.

Rajabu misses his wife and three children when he goes on these trips, but he’s found a good way to make money and it’s worth the pain of traveling. Two of his kids are in school, and Rajabu has to save money to pay for school fees because the public school system in Tanzania is not free. He looks forward to paying off this loan and taking out another loan to grow his business.