Judith Mumbo

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Judith Mumbo by Action Now: Kenya in Kenya. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 10 - 16 months, Action Now: Kenya will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Judith Mumbo requested and received from the lenders, a loan of USD 175. With this, she managed to fabricate and acquire a nice candlemaking machine. With the new machine, she is now moulding many candles, and forever has orders from her customers. Her customers are happy about the quality of the candles that she is making, and especially because with the new machine, she is now able to adjust the size of the candles therefore can make candles that are slightly shorter, hence cheaper. These new brand of candles are especially a favourite of her customers who run small grocery shops within Kibera, since they are able to sell them faster. They say that their customers are now better able to afford the candles, and to pay without any problem. Judith says that the machine has greatly helped to improve her income, and even with some of the profits, she is able to buy stock for her beadwork business. Judith is therefore very greatful to the lenders of her business.

We at Action Now Kenya on behalf of Judith Mumbo, say Thank You very much to the lenders of this business.

During the month of July 2007, we at Action Now Kenya got concerned about Judith's business, when she began to make her loan repayments later than the date agreed upon. We tried to caution her, but it seemed not to bear much fruit. within the month of August during the first week, we summoned Judith to the office, to find out the reason for her delay in payments, yet she kept on assuring us that she would be bringing her money soon. She however did not avail herself for a meeting with us and our attempts to call her through her cell phone were in vain. We further ascertained with the staff at the Lea toto Childrens center where she had kept her machine that she was no longer making candles, since the machine was just idle.

We finally managed to meet with Judith Mumbo and following a meeting with her together with the staff at lea toto, we agreed that ANK would now confiscate her candlemaking machine, first of all becase she was not using it and secondly, because she was not paying for her loan any more, and was not keeping her promises. We however agreed that we would keep the machine for two months, as we give her a chance to organize herself to bring the pending payments then take back her machine, failure to which ANK would be entitled to sell off the machine, in order to recover the money invested.

It came as a shock to us when Judith seemed to be disinterested in whatever action we took, especially when we considered the kind of effort and dedication that she had put in, at the point when the machine was fabricated. This was very sad for us as the ANK team, but this was an action that had to be taken, if we were to respect the loan disbursed to her.

It has now been over two months since the agreement, and Judith has not come back to ANK to make any payments or reclaim her machine. However, one of the many ANK clients has continued to see that machine whenever he has come to the office, and has now requested ANK to sell the machine to him. ANK will therefore soon sell off the candlemaking machine, and once the money invested is paid back, we shall send back the same to Kiva, so that it can be returned to the lenders.

We are sad about the turn of events for this business, but we are happy to inform the lenders that we shall be able to return the funds put into this business. We also thank you for the great support that you have given us, and hope that we shall continue to work with your great support.

Thank You!

ANK Staff.

During the first days after receiving her loan for her candle making machine Judith was very committed and willing to work and pay her loan. This went on for some time but then things changed. Whereby Judith delayed in loan repayments and when called upon to explain the matter she had no reason for the delay. It came to the attention of ANK that she was not interested in the work and the machine was not put into use. This caused ANK to confiscate the machine in order to sell it and be able to return the money back to Kiva. ANK is awaiting payments is waiting payments for this machine from a client who requested to purchase it after which the funds will be sent to Kiva.

On behalf of ANK staff.

Dear Lender,

This is an update on your loan to a borrower working with Action Now: Kenya in Kenya. Thank you for supporting low-income entrepreneurs by lending through Kiva.

You may have noticed that repayments on this loan have not been coming in for quite some time. After detailed investigation by Kiva representatives in Kenya, our team has determined that further repayments on your loan will be considerably delayed. However, Kiva staff are working closely with our Field Partner, Action Now: Kenya, who manages this loan on the ground to arrange the gradual repayment of your loan. To learn more, please visit:

http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=36

Although your loan is delinquent, we hope you realize that over 95% of loans on Kiva have been repaid in full and that you'll give lending to developing world entrepreneurs another chance in the future.

Thank you,

Ben Elberger

Kiva Staff

Microfinance Partnerships Manager