Adding to basket
Ngabo M. Y. is the president of the loan group called Tuchukuliane; she is the one in the photo raising her hand with a brilliant smile. She is taking out her 15th loan. She is 36, married, and the mother of 4 children. Three of them attend school and the youngest is not yet school-aged. Her husband is a nurse.
She opened up her little business with her own money that she had received from her husband. This working capital allowed her to buy a container of oil worth $13. She sells palm oil in a little market in the populous neighborhood of TMK. On Mondays and Thursdays she goes to the big market of Kituku, 15 km from the town of Goma. She has been selling palm oil for 13 years.
With the loan from the micro-finance institution Hekima, Ngabo M. Y. wishes to increase her sales by buying 20 jerrycans of palm oil. In future, she plans to stop doing her buying in Goma and go directly to the production centre in OICHA, a rural town in the far north of North Kivu province, and in the long run, she hopes to build a comfortable house. She also intends to buy a vehicle for the transport of her merchandise, and to invest in chicken-farming as well.
Ngabo M. Y. thanks the MFI Hekima for the loans that she receives without any tangible assets as collateral because it is due to these loans that she manages to support her children.
The Tuchukuliane group is composed of 14 members, mostly women.
In this group: Bahati, Chantal, Kavira, Oda, Lukoo, Ngabo, Kabuo, Niyibizi, Chekanabo, Kahindo, Feza, Basimire, Muhima, Kahindo
Translated from French by Kiva volunteer Teresa Kramer. View original language description.
