Tafutatafuta Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Tafutatafuta group, consisting of Patrick Sakwa, Beatrice Shiambullah, Mercyline Akulo, Elizabeth Marangu, Daniel Asinuli, Willy Adams, Ernest Odinga, Dickson Ambunya, Allan Kabwoya, Charles Munyango, Pele Bonface, Julius Moi, Patrick Nyongesa, Justus Olumasai by Opportunity International- Wedco Ltd. in Kenya. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 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 Kenya:

I met with Patrick before his group meeting in a village a few kilometers from Kakamega town. He runs a clothing and retail shop in his village. Both businesses have been quite profitable due to his good locations. From both businesses he makes a profit of 5000 schillings ($70).

For his next loan he hopes to boost stock and hire someone to transport his stock via bicycle to enable him more time developing his businesses.

Through the loan he is able to provide a better life for his family. He owns his house, is able to provide good medical care for his family, and, even though his kids are too young, plans to send them to private school.

The group is doing well. They didn’t lose anything from the post-election turmoil and none of their members were displaced. The only problem was that members weren’t able to make profit from their business from January through February.

Special notes:

Patrick does not have electronics shop as per his business description. He has owned this clothing kiosk for more than eight years. Often entrepreneurs in the developing world diversify with multiple small enterprises, thus is the fluid nature of micro-business in Kenya and leads to occasional misinformation posted to Kiva. We apologize for the error.

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