On Say

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to On Say by Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL), a partner of Save the Children in Cambodia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 18 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.

Ms. Ong Say lives in a deep forest, 1 hour and half by motorcycle from Siem Reap – site of the famous Angkor Wat temple. She has been making & selling charcoal for 2 years – both at the local market as well as to her neighbors. Before starting the charcoal business, Ms. Ong weaved palm tree leaves used in wall construction. She used her loan to buy 2 oxen and a cart to carry her charcoal. She is very happy with the oxen and the cart as it helps her business very much as she used to pay her neighbors to borrow their oxen and cart. In the photograph, you can see her charcoal and brick kiln used to make the charcoal. Because of the loan, she has increased her daily income by $7 – $10. In addition to the business, Ms. Ong Say raises 4 oxen, 10 chickens and 10 ducks.

Ms. Ong’s husband also sells charcoal and wood earning $10 a day. The couple has 4 children – 2 sons and 2 daughters. The oldest son who is 12 years old and the older daughter who is 10 years old are both in school. Their youngest son is 2 years old and the youngest daughter is 1 years old. Ms. Ong is responsible for caring for the children in addition to running her business. She works hard from early morning to late evening every day.

This loan was the first for Ms. Ong with HKL. She became aware of the opportunity through TV commercials of HKL as well as recommendations from neighbors. She's so happy to achieve expansion of her business because her business was very small for long time and it was very hard to expand due to small capital. She has no late repayment record and now ambitiously is planning to take her next loan to grow her business bigger and to help her brother and sister grow their business as well.

HKL strives to continue to support her and her family. To promote HKL, we have started an HKL Lending Team Kiva Community. Click below and join the Team HKL.

http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=1820

Thank you for your kind support to Ms. Ong Say.

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