St. Joseph Vocational Group

These people are the staff of the St. Joseph Vocational Institute, Magburaka, Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone. The institute was founded in 1985 by the Catholics of St Joseph of Cluny, and is the only formal institution in Magburaka that is geared towards the development of girls and young women. Their goal is to educate them and develop skills that will enable them to become self reliant. Thus they offer courses like computer science, typing, agriculture, tailoring, dyeing, hair dressing, catering and weaving. They serve mainly girls who can not make it in the formal schooling sector.

This will be the second loan St. Joseph Vocational Institute is requesting from Kiva through SMT. Their previous loan was a great help to these teachers. Some of them invested theirs in business, others used theirs to settle their children's school affairs and others use theirs to buy pieces of furniture.

Florence K. Yagbaji is the head mistress of the school. Mrs. Yagbaji (back right in pink) was born in Magburaka. She is 39 years old, married to a teacher and the mother of four children. Three of her children are in secondary schools and the fourth is in primary school. Mrs. Yagbaji invested her previous loan in the education of her children. This time she would like to use part of it to buy herself a plot of land and the balance she will use in her children's schooling.



About Group Loans
In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults. Learn more

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