Mrs. Sophal Khat Village Bank Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Sophal Khat group, consisting of Sophal Khat, Saron Um, Rina Luy, Chea Prach, Phat Svay, Muth Soth, Vanna Koy, Sopheap Chin, Kunthea Ung, Mao Ung, Sen Ung, Voen Eam, Seor Khat, Sheun Khat, Sokhom Yen, Srey Oun Penh by AMK in Cambodia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 11 months of this loan, AMK will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

My name is Katie Davis and I am a Kiva Fellow (KF7) volunteering in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for 4 months at Kiva field partner AMK. I recently had the opportunity to visit Kiva borrowers in the Barkou Village in the Kandal Province of Cambodia.

Mrs. Sophal Khat shared that her rice crop was recently harvested and that she is pleased with the results of the harvest. She only has one crop of rice per year (Some farmers in Cambodia harvest 2 crops per year but this is heavily dependent on quality of available irrigation) and she keeps all of the rice she grows for her family’s consumption. Mrs. Khat relies heavily on her son’s income – he transports soil out to the fields for other villagers.

I’d like to correct a translation error from the initial business profile posting. Mrs. Khat actually has 4 children, but only 1 of them lives at home. Three of the children are married. She is the president of a Village Bank group consisting of 16 members and she said that she enjoys the administrative responsibilities of being president. Mrs. Khat learned about AMK from her village chief.

After visiting Kandal Province, I wrote a blog post on the Kiva Fellows Blog called Rice Accounting 101 in Rural Cambodia which describes in more detail the way the women of this village measure year over year rice yield. Check it out if you would like to see a brief video clip featuring one of Mrs. Khat's neighbors.

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