Fund a loan, get repaid, fund another.

How Kiva works

Choose a borrower

Browse categories of borrowers— people looking to grow businesses, go to school, switch to clean energy and more.

Repeat!

Use the repayment to support another borrower, or withdraw your money.

Tap

Make a loan

Select a borrower who you connect with and help fund a loan with as little as $25.

Get repaid

Receive updates on your loans and see the dollars return to your Kiva account.

Choose a borrower

Browse categories of borrowers— people looking to grow businesses, go to school, switch to clean energy, and more.

Learn more about how Kiva works

Funded

Total loan: $375

Waleed Group

hodeidah, Yemen / Tailoring

Find a new loan

A loan helped a member to purchase fabrics, dresses and other basic materials needed for her business.

Waleed Group's story

This group, called Waleed Group, consists of four members, all female. All their projects are home-based and they have many clients, mostly women. They are from Hodeidah, Yemen. Amnah, the group leader, is a 52-year-old woman who is married and the mother of an adult child. She has been practicing her profession of making women's clothes for a long time. Her main business is tailoring and, due to her good reputation, she gained experience in a sewing lab until she was skilled enough to buy a sewing machine in order to open her business. She took a loan of 20,000 YER from AMB in order to purchase textile fabrics, dresses and other basic materials needed for her business. In the future, she plans to open a big new sewing shop to increase her income.

In this group: Fatima, Amnah, Amna, Aida

More about this loan

This loan is governed by Islamic lending principles. Because Islamic Law prohibits the charging of interest, Al-Amal is charging 0% interest on this loan. This is a Murabaha loan, which means that Al-Amal purchases goods for borrowers and charges a fee or mark-up. Click here to learn more about this loan type and Kiva's approach to lending in the Islamic world.

About Al-Amal Microfinance Bank:

Al-Amal reaches out to low-income micro-entrepreneurs and small business owners in Yemen with a suite of credit, savings, and insurance products tailored for Muslim borrowers. Before lending through Al-Amal, please consider the following:

1) Due to ongoing security concerns, full due-diligence of Al-Amal was conducted remotely rather than on-site. This makes Al-Amal atypical among Kiva's Field Partners, as Kiva staff have not conducted an on-site assessment. Al-Amal's assessment included in-person meetings with the top management in other, more secure locations in the Middle East.

2) Because Yemen is a new and unstable environment, there is a possibility that future loan repayments could be held indefinitely in the country for regulatory reasons, even if individual borrowers pay back their loans. As a lender to borrowers in Yemen, you accept this additional risk.

Additionally, all of Al-Amal's products are Sharia compliant and customized for its Muslim clients. Most of the loans are structured as Murabaha interest free loans. Al-Amal purchases goods for its borrowers and charges them a markup or fee. Al-Amal is also experimenting with Ijarah loans (an Islamic leasing product). For more information on Islamic microfinance, please click here.

With the civil war ongoing in Yemen, please be aware that lending to Al-Amal loan carries an elevated risk. Al-Amal has seen the delinquency levels in their portfolio rise as violence continues and economic challenges grow. We've also defaulted loans to Kiva borrowers who have been impacted by the war and unable to repay. Despite this reality, we continue to support Al-Amal because we believe strongly in the impact lenders' funds are having. Al-Amal is focusing on posting loans to Kiva to help small businesses recover or to help families cover essential expenses during the war. These loans have had a low delinquency rate since the start of 2017, but lenders should still be aware of the inherent risk in lending in Yemen at this time.