A loan helped a member to pay for improved seed, organic inputs, and tractor rental that will allow these farmers to escape subsistence by farming a larger area with a higher yield.


Women Champions Group's story

Isatu K (first on left), featured borrower of Women Champions Group, is a master farmer in Makambo village and supports a family of five with her farming. She is a respected leader in the community and likes to organize women's activities. She is passionate about women's leadership in business and farming, and likes to help younger women get their start.

She 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, but 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: Isatu, Kadiatu, Mariatu, Fatmata, Hawa, Kadiatu, Hussinatu, Amie, Kadiatu, Yeabu


This loan is special because:

It enables farmers to access farm inputs to improve their yield for increased income.



Loan details


Lenders and lending teams




Loan details