Van Kai

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

Van Kai, 25, lives with her husband and two children in Siem Reap, Cambodia, notable as the home of Angkor Wat. Van is a tailor, and her husband is a construction worker. Van requested this loan so she could buy a plot of land to grow rice.

I recently visited Van to ask about her family and her business. Her husband said that they used the loan to buy a plot of land, which Van now farms. Van has a daily income of about $2.50, while her husband earns around $5 per day. At the end of each month, the family can save a total of about $25.

I asked how Van thought her household compared to others in the community. Although they sometimes don't have enough to pay for basic needs, Van's husband guessed they were somewhere in the middle. Van's mother chimed in though, and said that they're probably somewhere below average in their village.

To try to see things from the borrower's perspective, I ask what makes them happy and what makes them sad. The family is happiest when they can buy more land, and when they get good yields from the farm. They are unhappy when they don't have enough money to pay for sickness, and when they have trouble finding the money to repay this loan.

Van's husband said that they don't have any plans for the future because he doesn't have the education necessary to do anything different. However, he has more hope for his children, whom he plans to send to school until they finish high school.

(For those viewing this update in email, this lender's profile can be viewed here: http://partners.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=60110, and all loans from CREDIT MFI in Cambodia can be viewed here: http://partners.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=9)"