Kiva - My Choice for February
Peris is my choice for helping out in February. Why? This is not a sob story but what seems like a good buisness venture and expansion idea. Small steps Peris.
Peris is married with three children. She attends Isinya Methodist Church. She is also the treasurer of Naserian Women’s Group. She started her business in the year 2004 with the help of a small group loan. Her business is at the moment doing well and she has eight steers, up from two steers at the start. From her business she has managed to build and furnish her own house, as well as build two rental houses. She can also now afford to educate her children in private schools without financial constraints because of her business. Given a loan of USD 300, Peris intends to buy extra three steers, which will enable her to sell her products at the Kenya Meat Commission. She has a good record of repayments and is very committed at the group level. She promises to make payments in monthly installments.
Scarlett's Kiva donation
I told Scarlett all about Kiva and the way it lends money to people in poorer third world countries but that the money is evenatually repaid to us. She got the idea straight away and wanted to use hers. She spent quite a time looking through the entries and then eventually made her $50 choice. This is the lady she chose.
Caroline Njoki is 36 year old entrepreneur, married with two kids. One in grade seven and the other is in grade three. Her husband works as a barber. He earns about US $20 a week. The income was not enough to pay for their children’s school fees and cater for the daily needs of the family since he was the sole bread winner. In 2000 Caroline opened her own general merchant shop selling cosmetics and lanterns on the busy Kenyatta Avenue in Nakuru city. She has established a dependable customer base by selling at wholesale and retail prices to the local street vendors. Now she is able to assist her husband in meeting the family requirements and paying her son’s school fee. Her business has enabled her to improve the livelihoods of the street vendors since she is located close to them. Despite all this, she has been unable to raise capital to stock up her shop and expand the existing shop. She is requesting a loan of US $1,500. Her budget is: US $1,300 to purchase stock and US $200 to re-decorate the shop. Her business expansion will mean the creation of more jobs for the unemployed thus assisting the community in improving their living. Caroline is an ambitious entrepreneur with skills and ability to repay the loan.
Saturday 8 - The Superbowl Edition
Before I start I need to point out that I hail from the UK where football is still the beautiful game played by heroes like David Beckham. So when I talkabut football I mean the ball-kicking game.1. did you participate in competitive sports as a child? if so, which one(s)?
I wanted to be good at sports at school becaseu it was the sort of British grammar school where the Head Boy was the one who excelled at all things sporting. My sister dated the Head boy but then that's anotehr story! Where was I? I did a bit of cross-country running and played in teh 2nd XI football team. I think I got through to the semi-final of the school tennis tournament one year.2. were there any sports that you wanted to participate in, but could/did not?
We weren't a rugby school and I am not sure whether that was a good thing or not! Dad said I missed out on a major part of growing up there.3. did your high school have a 'good' football team?
Yes, it used to win a lot of the local school leagues in all age groups.4. did you go to high school football games? why or why not?
No I was into music and played in a schools orchestra and we always seemed to be practising. I was a cellist.5. which was the best in your high school: the football team, the cheerleaders or the band?
It was a boys school so the cheerleaders would have been pretty boring! There's something else I missed early on in my education. So the vote goes to the football team. Coming from a city like Liverpool I suppose it had to be.6. are you more partial to college football, NFL football, or arena football?
England international matches closely followed by England rugby union internationals, then Premiership football.7. there is some contention among people in regard to the college bowl system vs. the NFL playoff system; steve spurrier has been very vocal about his desire for
a true play-off system for college football. i'm not well-versed in this as i am an ice hockey fan, so i'm doing some research on this to form an educated opinion on the system. do you think that the college system should mirror the play-off system for the NFL?
Pass8. OK ... bears or colts? who's it going to be tomorrow?
Well I put my money on the Bears mainly because it was raining so hard. What do I know!! Congratulations to Peyton Manning and the Colts.
