Fatou Ndiaye

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Fatou Ndiaye by Caurie Microfinance, a partner of Catholic Relief Services in Senegal. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 months, Caurie Microfinance, a partner of Catholic Relief Services will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

As a Kiva Fellow in Senegal, I recently had the opportunity to visit Fatou at her house to talk about her business.

When we caught up with her, Fatou had just gotten back from buying merchandise. She’s happy to have had a big loan with which she can buy a lot of merchandise.

She’s been a member of the village bank of Lélo for many years, and has been able to build up some savings. Sometimes she brings the money home, but sometimes, she lends this money to others in her group (editor’s note: this is common practice. Caurie requires each client to build up savings in order to take out larger loans. While Caurie’s loans are for a six month term, the village bank members often loan to each other on a monthly basis, at a rate fixed by the village bank).

She’s also been able to furnish her house and take care of other family needs. Recently, her son had to go to the hospital, and she was able to pay for the consultation and the prescriptions. Because her husband died, she’s the primary caretaker of the family.

She likes her work and is happy to have the loan in order to be able to continue her activities.

Please note that Fatou is not delinquent on her loan. An administrative error resulted in many of Caurie’s loans appearing as delinquent on the site, as well as a number of premature payments. The reality is that all of Caurie’s loans that are currently posted on the Kiva website have a fixed term of six months, as noted in the loan description. If you click on the "Show Advanced" link on her loan schedule, you'll see that she's repaid in full. Apologies for the confusion.

Below is a short video of Fatou talking about her loan in Wolof, the most widely-spoken language in Senegal.

To read more Kiva Fellow stories from Senegal, check out the

Kiva Fellows blog.

About Caurie Microfinance

Based in Thiès, Senegal, Caurie Microfinance is a not-for-profit independent microfinance institution that was launched jointly by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Caritas. It operates agencies in three primary regions within Senegal: Thiès, Kolda, and Zinguinchor, with smaller branches in other regions as well. Caurie loans only to women. To meet its objective and serve its customers, Caurie’s methodology is based on the creation of organized, structured and communally governed groups called “village banks.” These groups are made up of an average of 50 self-selected women from local community groups. The banks are based on the principles of participative management and collective guarantees. Learn more about Caurie Microfinance.

Thank you for supporting Fatou, Kiva, and Caurie!