Mary Ambang

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Mary Ambang by GHAPE in Cameroon. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 24 months, GHAPE will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Mary has been a GHAPE member in the small town of Mbengwi, outside of Bamenda, for six years. In that time she has taken six Empowerment Credits (loans), the most recent of which was for 250,000 CFA ($625 USD). Mary is the second wife to another GHAPE member, Rachel Agwa Fonguh, and together, they support their husband, the village chief, because he has diabetes and is unable to work.

With her loan, Mary is buying cassava to process and sell in the market for the local food waterfufu. She has also invested money in her farm and bought five goats at 10,000 CFA ($25 USD) a piece. Mary must pay for transport to the Bamenda market, where she sells once per week with a couple other women from the village. She figures that she gains between 5-8,000 CFA ($12.50-20 USD per week at the market.

Mary has seven children, two in secondary school, two in primary school, one who works in another city, and two grown children. She must pay tuition for her children and buy medications for her husbands high blood pressure and diabetes with what she earns. “There are plenty of good things about GHAPE,” says Mary. “I have a four room house because of GHAPE and I have to work very hard so I can pay back small small (quickly/soon).”