Hopefully title will work later....
I have been a
long time Kiva member, but today I made a loan to a woman in Ghana that
had a whole new meaning for me. I don't know the woman, but I have seen
many women just like her all around Accra. The loan is to a woman who is
going to buy more plastic bowls to sell. Just plastic bowls, you say?
Nothing else? Yup, just plastic bowls. And she is either selling them
out of a tiny little shack or carrying them around in a bucket on her
head. And that is ALL that she is selling. And I have no idea how, but
she is making a living out of doing this. Now I will say that Kiva's
partners in the Cape Coast area have been having trouble getting
repayment from their loans - but again, having seen the conditions in
which people are trying to make a living, I'm not surprised.
So
if the lender has a poor payback history, why did I loan to Felicia?
Was it just that she is in Ghana and I am in Ghana now? Or is it that
having seen the tenacity of people here, I have more faith in Felicia's
ability to use the money wisely? I hope its the latter (especially given
the lack of wise money stewardship we are observing in Accra) but
either way, I hope that like all gestures made in good faith, it has the
ability to improve someone's life.
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