Aun Dam

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Aun Dam by MAXIMA Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. in Cambodia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 20 months, MAXIMA Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Aun was busy weaving when we met up with her in her home in Khsach Kandal, about thirty minutes from Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh. She took a few moments to answer our questions about her Kiva loan, which we are happy to report has successfully improved Aun’s business and has been continuously repaid on schedule.

As is common among her neighbors, Aun weaves silk for traditional Khmer clothing from her home. She weaves 32 kbuns (standard size pieces) each loom cycle, which each kbun taking approximately 3-4 days to complete. She must purchase all the materials, including the thread and silk, as well as hire someone to prepare her loom, before each cycle. She lacks the capital to make all of these investments upfront and must take out a loan to be able to afford to do so. Aun says she appreciates taking loans out with Kiva and MAXIMA because the interest rates other banks and moneylenders charge make it difficult for her to afford to repay the loan.

This cycle Aun took out enough money to purchase silk, instead of the usual silk/cotton mix with which she weaved before. Whereas she previously fetched $24 per kbun in the markets in Phnom Penh, she now earns $37 for each piece. With the extra income Aun is able to pay her children’s school fees as well as her household’s daily expenses.

In the future Aun hopes to maintain her weaving. She hopes that eventually she and her husband, who works on construction jobs in addition to his fishing business, can work transporting gravel and sand to construction sites to continue to increase the family’s earnings and standard of living.

Thank you for your support of Kiva, MAXIMA, and especially Aun. To hear more stories about MAXIMA and microfinance in Cambodia, please visit http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/category/kiva-microfinance-partner/maxima/

Below: Aun hand-dyes all of her own silk