Fatma is 45 years old, widowed, and has three children, ranging in age from 11 to 30. When Fatma requested her first loan, she was newly separated from her husband and living in her neighbor’s wooden shed with her six-year-old son. Neighbors suggested that she should take a loan from Maya to open up new possibilities for her future.
Fatima's life has changed since meeting with a Maya loan officer. She was accepted into a group and received a loan for $450. With a small part of the loan she found a small place to rent and bought some furniture and other household items. With the remaining money, she went to Istanbul and bought some loose beads and some things for the bohça trade (usually cheaply made pajamas, clothes, table clothes, etc. that are wrapped up a cloth and carried on one’s back to sell around the neighborhoods). Sometimes Fatima took her bohça on her back to make sales and sometimes she made prayer beads from the loose beads she had bought and sold them at mosques and on street corners. She repaid her first loan and requested another. With her second loan she bought more items for the bohça trade.
On the days she was not out selling, Fatima was planting and raising vegetable seedling in an unused garden spot next to her house. She took the seedlings and started to sell them at the local bazaar. She saw that she could earn more money raising vegetable seedlings. She repaid her second loan. For her third through fifth loans she concentrated on expanding the areas where she could raise seedlings and planted produce to sell in the bazaar. Her business was going so well that during this time she built a house, bought a vehicle to transport her expanding seedling and produce supplies to the bazaar, and hired a seasonal worker.
With her sixth loan, Fatima will continue to expand her business using the loan to rent additional fields, buy seeds, fertilizer, watering supplies, and materials for a greenhouse. Fatma’s life has changed a lot. She is now a free and happy woman.
In the future, Fatima wants to rent other fields and upgrade her vehicle. She also hopes to own her own fields, so she won’t have to rent but can have her own land and production, and travel to holy places. She wants her son to be successful in school, his work and make investments for their retirement.
Translated from Turkish by Maya Staff
Fatma Hanım 45 yaşında ve dul. Fatma Hanım'ın 3 çocuğu var. En küçüğü 11,en büyüğü 30 yaşında.
Fatma hanım kredi kullanmaya başladığında çok çaresizdi. Eşinden yeni ayrılmış ve komşunun tahtadan yaptığı barakada yaşıyordu,altı yaşında bir çocuğu vardı. Komşuları Maya'yı önermiş borç para al, yaşamının önünü açarsın demişler. Bu durumda bana kim borç verir,vermezler demiş. Ancak maya saha sorumlusuyla karşılaşınca hayatı değişmiş,başvurusu kabul edilmiş. Grup kredisiyle 750 TL borç almış. Küçük bir kısmıyla ev kiralamış,eski eşya satanlardan çocuğunun ve kendisinin yatabileceği ve oturabileceği iki kanepe alıp yaşayabilecekleri alanı sağladı,kalan parasıyla İstanbul'a gidip,biraz boncuk,birazda bohça malı aldı. Bazen bohçasını sırtına alıp satış yaptı,bazende boncuklardan ürettiği tesbihleri cami ve yol kenarlarında sattı ve borcunu ödedi. Bir kredi daha talep etti. Kredisini alıp bohça malı alıp sattı. Satışa çıkmadığı günlerde,evinin yanında boş olan bahçede denemek için sebze fidesi ekti. Fideleri pazara çıkarıp sattı.Gördü ki bu iş daha fazla para kazandırıyor.Maya'ya borcu da bitti. Bir kredi daha alarak,bahçe kiralayıp fide üreticiliğine başladı. Fideleri pazara çıkarıp satar,kendince iyi para kazanır.Kendisine ev yapmaya karar verir.Evet şimdi kendi evinde oturmaktadır.Kredi borcu bitmiştir.Tekrar kredi alır ve yine fide eker,yanında mevsimlik işçi çalışmaktadır artık. Fideleri pazara götürmek için arabaya ihtiyacı vardır ve 2.yıl fide geliriyle kendisini taşıyabilecek düzeyde bir araba alır. Artık arabası da vardır.Fatma Hanım'ın hayatı çok ama çok değişti. O artık özgür ve mutlu bir kadın.
Fatma Hanım aldığı bu kredi ile kiraladığı tarlanın bakımı,fide tohumları,gübreleme,sulama malzemesi,sera muşambası gibi üretim için gerekli malzeme almak istiyor.Bu kredi ile bir tarla daha kiralama fırsatı olacak,arabasını yeniliyecek.Belki kendi tarlası olacak,kiralama yerine kendi yerinde üretim yapacak.Bir hayalide umreye gitmek,gezmek.Oğlunu okutuyor ,başarılı olduğunu düşünüyor.İyi okullarda okumasını ve iyi iş sahibi olmasını istiyor. Yaşlılığına yatırım yapıyor.Yeniliğe açık,girişken,mücadeleci.
Funded
Fatma
A loan helped to purchase the materials for planting seedlings and growing produce.
Fatma's story
More about this loan
About Maya:
Although Turkey is one of the largest economies in the region, it has not reached its potential for microfinance investment. Deficient legal structures for microfinance credit initiatives and lack of quality information about microfinance demand and structure in Turkey are the largest obstacles to improvements in the field. Under these challenging conditions, Maya provides group and individual loans to low-income women who lack access to the financial services they need in order to start or improve their own small-scale businesses. Maya borrowers are part of lending groups, but are posted to Kiva as individuals. Therefore, lenders are exposed to additional risk of default in the event that a member of this borrower's group defaults on her loan. Maya, established in 2002, was Turkey?s first microcredit program. Maya is Kiva?s first Field Partner in Turkey and posted its first loans in August 2011. Headquartered in Istanbul, Maya has four branch offices. For more information, visit Maya?s partner page.
Loan details
Loan length:
Repayment schedule
Monthly: One repayment made per month
End of term: One repayment made at the end of the loan term
Irregular: Any other repayment schedule
To see a detailed repayment schedule for a specific loan, click the "Repayment schedule" link on the loan profile under "Loan details."
What is the disbursed date?
In the case of partner loans, many of our Lending Partners choose to disburse loan funds before the loan request is posted on Kiva. We allow pre-disbursal because it ensures that the funds reach the borrower as soon as they are needed. Loan funds from Kiva lenders then go to backfill that amount and as a lender you assume the risk of the loan. By doing this, our Lending Partners assume the risk that, if the loan isn't funded by lenders, they will have to fund the loan without any funds from Kiva.
If a partner loan is not pre-disbursed, it will be listed on Kiva with an expected "post-disbursed" date. If a post-disbursed loan is not funded on Kiva, there is a chance that the borrower may not receive their loan. Some Lending Partners choose to disburse loans with other sources of funding, while other partners don't have the resources available to fund loans without Kiva lenders' support. No direct loans will be disbursed unless they fully fundraise on Kiva.
Funding model
What does "Partner covers currency loss" mean & how could it affect my Kiva loans?
Potential for currency exchange loss is noted on every loan profile under the loan details:
"Yes" means the Lending Partner will cover any currency loss. Lenders will not bear losses due to currency fluctuation
"Partial" means that the Lending Partner has opted to cover losses only up to 10%. If the U.S. dollar appreciates more than 10% against the local currency, those losses will be passed onto lenders.
"No" means that the Lending Partner is not covering any currency losses and all losses will be passed onto lenders.
"N/A" means the Lending Partner disburses loans to borrowers in USD so their loans are not subject to any currency fluctuation.
Do Kiva borrowers pay any interest on their loans?
Our partners collect interest from borrowers because there are many operational expenses associated with microfinance in developing markets, especially in rural areas. Many of Kiva's Lending Partners also provide additional services alongside their loan products such as business training, financial literacy lessons, or health services.
Kiva will not partner with an organization that charges unreasonable interest rates, and we require Lending Partners to fully disclose their rates. In addition, we only partner with microfinance institutions and organizations that have a social mission to serve the poor, unbanked, and underserved.
There are some 0% interest loans on Kiva, including all direct loans in the United States. To learn more about the interest rates Kiva borrowers pay, you can review the "Average cost to borrower" field on a loan profile.
We also encourage you to read the following articles if you are interested in further educating yourself on the topic: Microfinance 101 (https://www.kiva.org/microfinance), Top 10 things to know about microfinance (https://www.kiva.org/blog/top-10-things-to-know-about-microfinance), Microfinance interest rates explained (https://www.kiva.org/blog/whats-up-with-microfinance-interest-rates)
What is a risk rating?
The Lending Partner risk rating reflects the risk of institutional default associated with each of Kiva’s Lending Partners. A 0.5-star rating means the organization has a relatively higher risk of institutional default, while a 5-star rating indicates the organization is at a relatively lower risk of default, based on Kiva's analysis and the available information displayed in the Lending Partner section of every loan. Lending Partners with the lowest credit tier undergo a lighter level of due diligence and do not receive a risk rating; instead, in places where a risk rating would normally appear, these partners are labeled as “Experimental.” For more information, see "What is an Experimental Lending Partner?"
Direct loans also do not receive a formal risk rating. Instead, these loans are approved through “social underwriting”, where trustworthiness is determined by friends & family lending a portion of the loan request, or by a Kiva approved Trustee vouching for the borrower. Direct loans will appear as "Unrated" and lenders should always assume these loans represent the highest level of repayment risk on Kiva.
How are loans facilitated?
Kiva loans are facilitated through 2 models, partner and direct, that enable us to reach the greatest number of people around the world.
For partner loans, borrowers apply to a local Lending Partner, which manages the loan on the ground. Lending Partners are responsible for screening borrowers, disbursing loans, posting borrowers to the Kiva website for funding, collecting repayments and otherwise administering Kiva loans on the ground to borrowers.
For direct loans, borrowers apply through the Kiva website and may or may not be endorsed by a Trustee. Unlike Lending Partners, Trustees don't handle any financial transactions or have any duty to repay loans on behalf of their borrowers. Instead, Trustees take the role of providing support and business advice to their borrowers throughout the term of the loan.
More information about successive and concurrent loans
Most borrowers take out loans consecutively, meaning that they receive a second loan after having repaid the first. However, sometimes our Lending Partners give out concurrent loans, allowing borrowers to take out one primary loan and a secondary "add-on" loan along with it. These additional loans are typically smaller than the borrower's primary loan and serve a different purpose. We trust our partners to determine whether a borrower has the means to be able to repay a successive or concurrent loan.
Lenders and lending teams
Country: Turkey
Lending Partner: Maya
Average cost to borrower (PY)
What does "Profitability (Return on Assets)" mean?
Average loan size (% of per capita income)
A Lending Partner's average loan size is expressed as a percentage of the country's gross national annual income per capita. Loans that are smaller (that is, as a lower percentage of gross national income per capita) are generally made to more economically disadvantaged populations. However, these same loans are generally more costly for the Lending Partner to originate, disburse and collect.
Partner delinquency (arrears) rate
How this is calculated: delinquency (arrears) rate = $ value of payments past due of delinquent paying back loans / outstanding $ value of all paying back loans
Loans at risk rate
Lending Partner's default rate
How this is calculated: default rate = amount of ended loans defaulted / amount of ended loans
Notes:
- Many Lending Partners do not yet have many ended loans due to their short history on Kiva (see "Time on Kiva"). If this is the case, a more meaningful indicator of principal risk is "delinquency rate."
- At Kiva, we define default (non-repayment) as: the time when Kiva determines that collection of funds from a borrower or partner is doubtful, or the cumulative amount repaid as of a quarterly reconciliation is less than the amount expected as of 360 days prior and there have been no repayments reported to Kiva during this time.
Kiva typically processes defaults on a semiannual basis, and case by case exceptions may be made if the partner or Kiva anticipates future repayments to be made on the loan. Lending Partners also have the option to default loans at any time, should they determine that further collection of loan repayments from the borrower is unlikely.
What's a Lending Partner?
Our Lending Partners are nonprofit organizations, microfinance institutions, schools, and social enterprises. Many provide services alongside their loans, such as entrepreneurial training or finanical literacy development. Our partners all share one thing in common: a desire to improve people's lives through access to safe and affordable credit. You can see a list of Kiva Lending Partners here: kiva.org/partners
Loan details
Loan length:
Repayment schedule
Monthly: One repayment made per month
End of term: One repayment made at the end of the loan term
Irregular: Any other repayment schedule
To see a detailed repayment schedule for a specific loan, click the "Repayment schedule" link on the loan profile under "Loan details."
What is the disbursed date?
In the case of partner loans, many of our Lending Partners choose to disburse loan funds before the loan request is posted on Kiva. We allow pre-disbursal because it ensures that the funds reach the borrower as soon as they are needed. Loan funds from Kiva lenders then go to backfill that amount and as a lender you assume the risk of the loan. By doing this, our Lending Partners assume the risk that, if the loan isn't funded by lenders, they will have to fund the loan without any funds from Kiva.
If a partner loan is not pre-disbursed, it will be listed on Kiva with an expected "post-disbursed" date. If a post-disbursed loan is not funded on Kiva, there is a chance that the borrower may not receive their loan. Some Lending Partners choose to disburse loans with other sources of funding, while other partners don't have the resources available to fund loans without Kiva lenders' support. No direct loans will be disbursed unless they fully fundraise on Kiva.
Funding model
What does "Partner covers currency loss" mean & how could it affect my Kiva loans?
Potential for currency exchange loss is noted on every loan profile under the loan details:
"Yes" means the Lending Partner will cover any currency loss. Lenders will not bear losses due to currency fluctuation
"Partial" means that the Lending Partner has opted to cover losses only up to 10%. If the U.S. dollar appreciates more than 10% against the local currency, those losses will be passed onto lenders.
"No" means that the Lending Partner is not covering any currency losses and all losses will be passed onto lenders.
"N/A" means the Lending Partner disburses loans to borrowers in USD so their loans are not subject to any currency fluctuation.
Do Kiva borrowers pay any interest on their loans?
Our partners collect interest from borrowers because there are many operational expenses associated with microfinance in developing markets, especially in rural areas. Many of Kiva's Lending Partners also provide additional services alongside their loan products such as business training, financial literacy lessons, or health services.
Kiva will not partner with an organization that charges unreasonable interest rates, and we require Lending Partners to fully disclose their rates. In addition, we only partner with microfinance institutions and organizations that have a social mission to serve the poor, unbanked, and underserved.
There are some 0% interest loans on Kiva, including all direct loans in the United States. To learn more about the interest rates Kiva borrowers pay, you can review the "Average cost to borrower" field on a loan profile.
We also encourage you to read the following articles if you are interested in further educating yourself on the topic: Microfinance 101 (https://www.kiva.org/microfinance), Top 10 things to know about microfinance (https://www.kiva.org/blog/top-10-things-to-know-about-microfinance), Microfinance interest rates explained (https://www.kiva.org/blog/whats-up-with-microfinance-interest-rates)
What is a risk rating?
The Lending Partner risk rating reflects the risk of institutional default associated with each of Kiva’s Lending Partners. A 0.5-star rating means the organization has a relatively higher risk of institutional default, while a 5-star rating indicates the organization is at a relatively lower risk of default, based on Kiva's analysis and the available information displayed in the Lending Partner section of every loan. Lending Partners with the lowest credit tier undergo a lighter level of due diligence and do not receive a risk rating; instead, in places where a risk rating would normally appear, these partners are labeled as “Experimental.” For more information, see "What is an Experimental Lending Partner?"
Direct loans also do not receive a formal risk rating. Instead, these loans are approved through “social underwriting”, where trustworthiness is determined by friends & family lending a portion of the loan request, or by a Kiva approved Trustee vouching for the borrower. Direct loans will appear as "Unrated" and lenders should always assume these loans represent the highest level of repayment risk on Kiva.
How are loans facilitated?
Kiva loans are facilitated through 2 models, partner and direct, that enable us to reach the greatest number of people around the world.
For partner loans, borrowers apply to a local Lending Partner, which manages the loan on the ground. Lending Partners are responsible for screening borrowers, disbursing loans, posting borrowers to the Kiva website for funding, collecting repayments and otherwise administering Kiva loans on the ground to borrowers.
For direct loans, borrowers apply through the Kiva website and may or may not be endorsed by a Trustee. Unlike Lending Partners, Trustees don't handle any financial transactions or have any duty to repay loans on behalf of their borrowers. Instead, Trustees take the role of providing support and business advice to their borrowers throughout the term of the loan.
More information about successive and concurrent loans
Most borrowers take out loans consecutively, meaning that they receive a second loan after having repaid the first. However, sometimes our Lending Partners give out concurrent loans, allowing borrowers to take out one primary loan and a secondary "add-on" loan along with it. These additional loans are typically smaller than the borrower's primary loan and serve a different purpose. We trust our partners to determine whether a borrower has the means to be able to repay a successive or concurrent loan.
Lending Partner: Maya
Average cost to borrower (PY)
What does "Profitability (Return on Assets)" mean?
Average loan size (% of per capita income)
A Lending Partner's average loan size is expressed as a percentage of the country's gross national annual income per capita. Loans that are smaller (that is, as a lower percentage of gross national income per capita) are generally made to more economically disadvantaged populations. However, these same loans are generally more costly for the Lending Partner to originate, disburse and collect.
Partner delinquency (arrears) rate
How this is calculated: delinquency (arrears) rate = $ value of payments past due of delinquent paying back loans / outstanding $ value of all paying back loans
Loans at risk rate
Lending Partner's default rate
How this is calculated: default rate = amount of ended loans defaulted / amount of ended loans
Notes:
- Many Lending Partners do not yet have many ended loans due to their short history on Kiva (see "Time on Kiva"). If this is the case, a more meaningful indicator of principal risk is "delinquency rate."
- At Kiva, we define default (non-repayment) as: the time when Kiva determines that collection of funds from a borrower or partner is doubtful, or the cumulative amount repaid as of a quarterly reconciliation is less than the amount expected as of 360 days prior and there have been no repayments reported to Kiva during this time.
Kiva typically processes defaults on a semiannual basis, and case by case exceptions may be made if the partner or Kiva anticipates future repayments to be made on the loan. Lending Partners also have the option to default loans at any time, should they determine that further collection of loan repayments from the borrower is unlikely.
What's a Lending Partner?
Our Lending Partners are nonprofit organizations, microfinance institutions, schools, and social enterprises. Many provide services alongside their loans, such as entrepreneurial training or finanical literacy development. Our partners all share one thing in common: a desire to improve people's lives through access to safe and affordable credit. You can see a list of Kiva Lending Partners here: kiva.org/partners
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