Samoeurn Orn

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Samoeurn Orn by Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL), a partner of Save the Children in Cambodia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 12 months, Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL), a partner of Save the Children will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Samoeurn Orn and her husband are pleased to report that the loan has boosted their income and that they think it has been a great success. Her husband has been able to nearly double his daily income with the new moto that they purchased with the loan.

Samoeurn says that her business, selling banana chips is also going well. She has been selling these chips for about four years and told me that she has regular customers so her sales remain relatively similar every day.

She is also happy to report that all of her children are doing well. Her son, who works as a welder in Battambang has had good business recently and has been able to provide extra money for his parents. Her daughters, who live in Phnom Penh and work at garment factories also are doing well despite the layoffs at may of the factories.

Samoeurn and her husband have had no problems repaying the loan and are happy that they decision to borrow the money.

She says that she has no plans to enlarge her business and likes very much what she does right now. She says that her husband also likes being a moto driver but that he may want to expand to another business sometime in the future.

Before I left Samoeurn wanted me to try one of her banana chips. I purchased 5 of the sheets for 500 riel (about 12 cents) and they are delicious!!! Please see the video of Smoeurn and her banana chips.

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A Kiva Fellow working with Kiva’s field partner HKL in Cambodia posted this journal.

About HKL:

Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL) is one of Cambodia's largest and most successful microfinance institutions (MFIs), providing microfinance services to poor people, particularly women, in urban and rural areas. Its mission is to improve income in agricultural, commercial and manufacturing enterprises throughout Cambodia, by providing loans at reasonable interest rates and encouraging savings. HKL specifically targets women and poor families in order to help them achieve increased financial security and quality of life.

Join HKL’s lending team Here

If you would like to read more about what it is like to be a Kiva Fellow check out our blog Here

Thank you for supporting a Kiva entrepreneur in Cambodia. My name is Drew Loizeaux, and I have been serving as a Kiva Fellow with one of Kiva’s partners in Cambodia, Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL), for the last three months. Working alongside the fantastic staff here, and meeting many of the clients that your loans have funded, has been a tremendously inspiring experience. Without you, the Kiva lenders, none of this would be possible.

Working at HKL with everyone from management to field staff, I have seen first hand the dedication to fostering these relationships. HKL staff serve their clients with an amazing amount of respect and understanding that, in turn, creates a great level of trust between both parties. The Kiva model flourishes with this trust, because many important details of the lives and businesses of the entrepreneurs that would otherwise be missed are passed on to the lenders.

Before I became a Kiva Fellow, my favorite part of the lending process was receiving updates on the Kiva entrepreneurs who I had lent to. It was like a small window into their lives, and it made me feel like I was able to make the world better in some small but tangible way. As a Kiva Fellow, visiting with clients and finding out about the borrowers’ progress is still my favorite part of working with Kiva.

Many of you have received updates on HKL loans, but I know many others have not. We have been working extremely hard to get as many journals as possible written, but with current staffing and the number of HKL loans on Kiva, we have been focusing on the loans that are ending soon. In the next year, we anticipate that you will receive individual updates on a large majority of your loans. In the meantime, I would like to share the videos and journals for three of my favorite meetings with Kiva Entrepreneurs during my time here. I hope you enjoy them!

Soch Han and her family make bricks from the earth on their property. When I went to visit with them, they were removing the bricks from the oven. This activity made a very interesting video, which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofLQtOnADko&_te=mj. Read the entire journal of our visit on her business profile page here: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=46326&_te=mj

Rom Chhoeuy sells fish and traditional fish paste at a local market. When I visited with her, I asked her what her hopes and dreams are for the future. When her kids realized that they were being videotaped, they were very excited about it and spent the whole time waving at me. You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN-DBP1CLls&_te=mj. Read the whole journal on her business profile page here: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=53965&_te=mj

Khean Tol has many business endeavors, including farming, raising pigs, making baskets, and making rice wine. When I went to visit her, she was in the middle of making a set of baskets and was kind enough so show me how she makes them. You can watch video of this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNDJQrkc7UA&_te=mj. Read the whole journal on her business profile page here: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=47715&_te=mj.

On behalf of Kiva and everyone here at HKL, thanks again for your loan and continued support of entrepreneurs in Cambodia.

Sincerely,

Drew Loizeaux,

Kiva Fellow with HKL

Phnom Penh, Cambodia