Ramatu K (1st on left), featured borrower of Women's Unity Group, is a master farmer in Mabombor Village and has a large family of eight. She is passionate about business and farming, and likes to help younger women get their start.
Ramatu is a seasoned farmer whose rice farming business was hard hit during Sierra Leone's 2014-2017 Ebola crisis. She has since recovered her business very slowly due to predatory lending and a lack of access to financing. She has organized a large group of other women who, like her, are currently trapped in a cycle of subsistence and take extremely high-interest loans for poor-quality inputs during planting time. A no-interest Kiva loan will enable this group of determined women to throw off the shackles of predatory lending, expand and prosper.
Additionally, the global COVID-19 pandemic is causing food shortages in some areas of Sierra Leone as imported rice becomes more scarce. A Kiva loan will empower these women to increase their local rice production and and enhance food access in Sierra Leone at a time when this is badly needed.
In this group: Ramatu, Digba, Iye, Yombo, Marie, Mariama, Hawa, Marie, Boroma, Maffie