09. Đông Sơn (10.13.09) Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to 09. Đông Sơn (10.13.09) Group, consisting of Châm Lê Thị, Gấm Lê Thị, Thư Bùi Thị Minh, Hiền Lê Thị, Gái Đỗ Thị by Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women (TCVM), a partner of Save the Children in Viet Nam. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 5 months of this loan, Fund for Thanh Hoa Poor Women (TCVM), a partner of Save the Children will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I recently had the chance to visit several members of 9-Dong Son Group and would like to share an update with you.

Ms. Cham Le Thi is the group leader of 9-Dong Son Group. This is her second loan with FPW and she has used the money to purchase additional products for her store. Ms Cham sells and assortment of products (from pens and pencils to spices and seasonings) to students at Hang Duc University. Ms. Cham has two children who are both in school. Her oldest child will be graduating from the 12th grade this year.

Ms. Do Thi Gai is a friendly lady who sells tofu at the Dong Son Market. She sells each piece of tofu for 3,000 ($0.17 USD). She makes the tofu at night and takes her products to the market in the morning. In on hour, Ms. Gai can make 20 pieces of tofu. She spends 45,000 ($2.62 USD) on supplies to make one case of tofu (20 pieces). She can make a profit of 15,000 VND ($0.87) per day. In one day, she can sell 4 cases of tofu for a total profit of 60,000 VND ($3.50). Ms. Gai told me that they profit from her business has been mostly used to make payments on her house.

Ms. Le Thi Gam sells meat at the Dong Son market. She has used the loan money to purchase additional meat for re-sale. Ms. Bui Thi Minh Thu and Ms. Le Thi Hien were busy at their shops and unable to attend the meeting. The other members of the group reported that both Ms. Thu and Ms. Hien had made their repayment on time.

It was a pleasure to visit this group of ladies and learn about their businesses. Thank you for lending to entrepreneurs from the Thanh Hoa Fund for Poor Women!

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I will be serving as a Kiva fellow from June through August at the Thanh Hoa Fund for Poor Women. Lack of capital is the most common challenge for the poor households in this area of Vietnam. FPW provides client-oriented financial services to a large number of poor women who have ability to work but lack loan capital and women who cannot access any formal finance services.

Please consider joining our new lending team, Fans of the Thanh Hoa Fund for Poor Women, to support more entrepreneurs in Thanh Hoa! To view a list of the currently fundraising loans from FPW, click here.

Read more about the Kiva Fellows’ experiences across the world on the Kiva Fellows Blog