Kiboswa Safina Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Kiboswa Safina group, consisting of Evaline Nyagona, Silibia Kore, Sarah Atieno, Peres Akinyi, Rose Atieno, Esther Miroyo, Esther Atieno, Agnes Akoth, Ann Anyim, Jane Auma, Pesika Jeremiah, Carilus Ouma, Saidi Doka, Vitalice Omondi, Daniel Oyugi by Opportunity International- Wedco Ltd. in Kenya. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 7 months, Opportunity International- Wedco Ltd. will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Update by Zack Turner, Kiva Fellow with OI-Wedco in Kisumu, Kenya:

I visited Kiboswa Safina Group during one of their weekly group meetings in Nyahera a village in the hills of Kisumu. Evaline offered an update after the meeting.

She continues to sell clothes at the market and has also been tailoring for over eight years. Her business began after she went to tailoring school. She saved her own capital to purchase her first sewing machine and materials. Now Evaline has been with the Kiboswa Safina Group for two years and is striving to finish her second group loan with Opportunity International-Wedco.

The loan was used to buy materials for ladies dresses. Each week she averages a profit of 3000 schillings ($45). This profit is enough to provide for her children and husband, who is unemployed and does odd jobs around town. Though her business and loans she now owns her house, pays her loan consistently, and has more than enough “daily bread”.

The group members of Kiboswa Safina were deeply affected by the violent crisis that occurred in the months after the disputed presidential election. During these months violence made business and travel extremely dangerous and economic activity halted in much of Kenya. Evaline was unable to conduct business in January and February. After peace was brokered the prices of goods and transportation had risen significantly, which cut into all the members potential for profits. A few members lost their stock to looters as well.

Evaline is thankful that she didn’t have anything stolen or destroyed, but she was unable to work because it was unsafe. Business started picking up in March after peace was settled. She hopes to clear her loan soon.

Special Notes:

This loan was posted mid-cycle on Kiva for extraordinary reasons. After peace and stability was restored, Opportunity International-Wedco chose to reschedule the loans of groups impacted by the post-election crisis. Kiva offered to help by posting the groups that were rescheduled, thus this extended update.

A self-help group is a legal community of people that band together to provide collateral. In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a 'group guarantee'. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults. For the Kiva posting, we select one member to represent the group with their story and business.

For more regarding the post-election crisis please start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_Kenyan_crisis