Journal entry for Beatrice Aciro

Update on Beatrice Aciro

Beatrice Aciro’s produce business is going very well. She has expanded from selling beans to also selling tomatoes. Her produce business generates income to support her three children, ages 7 to 3, and one of her brother’s children. Before receiving her loan, Beatrice was not working and was relying on money from her husband. With the access to startup capital from Kiva, her business began and she can count on two incomes now. She said that her life has changed tremendously because of the loan. With the profits, she has been able to furnish her house the in Acholi Quarter (an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Kampala) with four small cushioned chairs. None of her children were in school before the loan, but now she is able to send her oldest child, but unfortunately is not able to send her second oldest yet. She is working on saving money to be able to do this. She also has been able to purchase more food for her family, the kids get 3 meals a day instead of two, and are in better health.

Her profit has been about 60,000 UGX per month. Although business is not picking up right now she hopes that will change. Currently she is struggling with transport fees. It is rather expensive for her to get the produce. It can be costly to her income when she pays for the transport and then does not make very many sales during the week.

She is proud to have repaid 47,000 UGX of her loan and be able to have income left to support her family. After she has repaid this loan, she hopes to receive another loan, hopefully that is larger than her last, so she can buy more produce to continue with the same business. Her dream is to one day return to the north where all of her children can go to school and they can build a house for her family.