Nem Sophy

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Nem Sophy 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.

Nem Sophy, 35, lives with her husband and two children near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Nem sells desserts, and her husband is a soldier and a moto-taxi driver. Nem requested a loan to buy a new motorbike for her husband, and to expand her business.

I recently visited Nem to learn more about her loan. She lives in a small village in Russei Keo, which is about 20km upstream from Phnom Penh on the Tonle Sap river. Nem told us that she used $500 of the $1000 loan to bur a new motorbike. She also spent around $2-300 on materials and equipment for her dessert business. She is saving the rest for when she needs the extra capital for her business.

Nem typically earns around $2.50 per day, while her husband can earn about twice that. During a typical month, the family saves around $125, but after subtracting her monthly repayments to CREDIT (which are then sent back to you, the lender), she can only keep about $55.

To get more revealing perspectives on poverty, I have begun asking clients what bothers them the most about their lives and what makes them the most happy. Nem said she's happiest when she earns a good amount from her business, and mentioned that she was earning around $10 per day until recently, when business slowed significantly (most likely due to the financial crisis). Nem said that one of the most difficult things is to watch her husband work so hard, but barely earn enough for the family to cover expenses.

In the future, Nem said that she'd like to open a restaurant in front of her house, which sits on the main road. She has one son who shows promise as a carver, and wants to send him to apprentice with his uncle so he can get a higher paying job in the future.

(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=60501, and all loans from CREDIT MFI in Cambodia can be viewed here: http://partners.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=9)"