Microloans Case Study

987 Words4 Pages
Microloans are typically somewhere between $50 and $100, but this can vary widely. The smallest loan described was twenty five cents to a woman who needed to buy bamboo to make bamboo carpets; the largest was around $3000 to a woman who needed her husband to run errands for her on a motorcycle. Borrowers usually set up businesses based on the needs of the community. For many, this is food-related, such as selling buffalo milk, fishing, raising chickens, or rice husking. Other businesses revolve around items the community needs that can be made from other items, such as shopping bags made from empty cement, fertilizer, or flour bags, oil extraction for medicinal purposes from human hair, handbags from juice containers, clothing retail, and firewood sales. These products are generally successful because they are in demand and, in the case of food, can be essential. One of the most interesting stories is that of Felicitas (Lesing) Abatayo. Through Visayas Enterprise Foundation, she took three loans, one for $60US, and two for $96US. With these loans she was able to start her own business in making bags from recycled materials instead of being a laborer for a neighbor. While in business over the course of two years, she averaged $6US per day. She was the primary source of income for her eight children and live-in partner until she was diagnosed with leukemia after the filming of Small Fortunes. Her oldest daughter then became the breadwinner for the household until she developed tuberculosis from overworking. The rest of her children began accepting odd jobs to pay for food and medicine, but the family is just barely surviving. The

More about Microloans Case Study

Open Document