Sok Sy

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Sok Sy by CREDIT MFI -- World Relief in Cambodia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 18 months, CREDIT MFI -- World Relief will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Sok Sy lives with 19 other people (a total of 4 related families) in a small, two-room house in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Sok is a painter, and his wife performs tailoring work. Sok requested the current loan to purchase tools for his children, and to buy more materials for the family business. I recently visited Sok to learn more about his situation.

Sok said he used $600 of his loan to purchase cloth for the family business (of taking clothing scraps and sewing them in to simple cleaning rags). He used the remainder to buy a motorbike for his family's transportation needs. Sok said that over the past year, his family's income has increased by 40%, which he attributes to increased rag sales.

Sok said that the family typically buys $300 of clothing scraps per month, and sells $360 worth of rags. Someone typically comes to the house with a truck to deliver the rags and to take away the finished product. The rags the family produces are sold by the metric ton, at about $45. After expenses, including electricity ($2.50/month), water ($4/month), food ($37/month), and gas ($37/month), all 19 family members save a combined $50 per month.

Sok said that the roof often leaks, making it difficult to find a good spot to sleep during the rainy season. He wants to take out a loan in the future to repair it.

When asked about his dreams, Sok said he wants a bigger house, and he wants his children to finish college and work in a company (maybe in accounting, because he thinks they can make a good living that way).