Jenipher
400 USD financed in December 2015
Jenipher lives in Kisumu, Kenya. She is married and she operates a food café where she sells her cooked food. She has been involved in this business for 4 years. Her business is located in a busy area and her primary customers are locals. Jenipher describes her biggest business challenge to be inadequate working capital. She will use this loan to buy more stock of ingredients for preparing her food. This is Jenipher's second micro-loan. The previous loan was repaid successfully. She will use her anticipated profits to boost her business.
Rebecca
600 USD financed in December 2015
Rebecca is 31 years old and lives in Naivasha, Kenya. She is married to John, and they are blessed with three children who are respectively between 3 to 11 years old. She has had a food business for three years, currently earning a monthly income of 30,000 Kenyan shillings (290 USD). She has already repayed a previous loan successfully. She will be using the loan to purchase kitchen equipment, like new cutlery and crockery as well as cooking pots. Rebecca hopes and dreams for the future are to have a well-established restaurant.
Irene
350 USD financed in November 2015
Irene, from the Philippines, had received a 325 USD loan from sparkles in June 2015 in order to buy more stock of personal care products for her shop. Having successfully repaid her first loan already, she is asking for a second loan amounting 350 USD. Irene is a hardworking woman entrepreneur with three children. She has a general store and she is requesting a loan in order to purchase more groceries to sell. Irene dreams that one day, she will be able to save money to expand her business and continue to send her children to school.
Olimpia
200 USD financed in August 2015
Olimpia, from Salvador, had received a 200 USD loan from sparkles in August 2015 in order to buy corn and a griddle to make tortillas. Having successfully repaid her first loan already, she is asking for a second one of the same amount. Olimpia has worked for 12 years making and selling tortillas, which she learned to do from her mother. She sells from a stall in the center of her municipality, which she travels to on foot. This loan will be used to buy 4 quintals of corn, and firewood, which she will use to make her tortillas. Olimpia's dream is to continue working in order to raise her son, and see him graduate from high school and then continue on to university.
“Sewing Machines” Project – sparkles.lu & Friendship partnership
2000 EUR financed in September 2015
This year, sparkles.lu succeeded to support 22 women in the tailoring business in Bangladesh. To make this action possible, sparkles.lu worked in partnership with a local microfinance institution (MFI), Friendship, which has a branch in Luxembourg. This MFI played a key role as it facilitated and curated the sparkles.lu loans. This first collaboration with Friendship is very special to us, as they focus on taking care of the poorest of the poor in the most remote and inaccessible regions of their country. Most of our 22 entrepreneurs live in the Kurigram district, where several rivers flow and make their lives vulnerable in the rainy season. Indeed, residents often have to recover from floods and life is very difficult for some of the concerned families, who sometimes only subsist on the basis of one meal a day. By setting up sewing centers, they enable people to learn new skills in their district. All 22 women supported by sparkles.lu received a thorough tailoring training, followed by an evaluation of their ability to sew different pieces of clothes. They are then fully qualified to receive a loan to buy their own sewing machine. This responsible approach makes the difference and this is why sparkles.lu decided to be involved in this adventure. The beneficiaries from our 2,000 EUR global loan hope to improve their income by selling clothes on the local markets. They will use their earnings to improve their living conditions and the ones of their family, but also to support their children’s education. Bilki, 24 years-old, is one of the youngest borrowers; she is the mother of one child and dreams to open her own shop on the market in a few years. Lizu, 30 years-old mother of one child, is married and her husband is in the farm labour. They do not have any cultivable land on their own, so it is very difficult for them to manage food for their family, which consists of 4 members. Thanks to her new sewing machine, Lizu will also start earning for her family. Rebeka got divorced two years ago. She and her two children were suffering as they had no source of income. Her brothers gave them shelter, but Rebeka did not want to live on the mercy of her brothers and was desperately looking for a self-employment opportunity. She requested a loan to buy sewing machine. She dreams of opening a tailoring shop in her house. Sparkles.lu is proud to be able to support these brave women and wishes them all the best for the future of their business. The future repayments will serve to finance the dreams of new entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. With the help of Friendship, we will do our best to report on the evolution of sparkles.lu’s involvement in Bangladesh.
Flordeliz
175 USD financed in August 2015
Flordeliz lives in San Carlos, Negros Occidental, Philippines. She is 25 and has two children who are attending school. Her lifepartner has three kids. Flordeliz is a very brave entrepreneur and she has a food stall. She requested a loan to buy the necessary ingredients to make her products. Flordeliz has been in this business for 5 years. She wishes to spare enough money to be able to send her children to secondary school.
