We recently made a microloan to Erlinda, a banana seller in the Philippines.

Erlinda Helbero's main source of income comes from buying and selling bananas in her community. She is 50 years old, married and has five grown-up children. She is from the village of Banlag, Valencia City, Bukidnon. Erlinda has been in her business for over five years and earns approximately 6,500 Philippine pesos (PHP) a month. In 2010, Erlinda joined HSPFI to gain access to financial services to help improve her living conditions and enable her to engage in business activities. Erlinda is requesting a loan of 5,000 PHP which will be used to purchase additional bananas to sell. This will be her first loan from HSPFI. She plans to use the additional revenue generated from the business to improve and expand her business.

We are proud to support her, and glad to support a venture that share natures candy (fruit!) with more people. We wish the best of luck to Erlinda in her growing business!

We are very proud to announce, that we completed two more microloans through Kiva.org this week! This round we lent to the "Amigas Unidas Group" from Peru and Elda Tenazoa Upiachihua, also from Peru: The "Amigas Unidas Group"

Here is a little bit of information about the "Amigas Unidas Group": The group has 11 members, all of them running their individual sewing business. Jadee Noemi is the president of the group. She is 30 years old and has two children. Jadee has a small workshop in her home. She started off in the workshop of a neighbor and there she learned how to mend and at the same time she started to study how to cut and sew. With the first earnings from sewing, Jadee was able to buy a sewing machine with which she made shirts to sell. Today she makes t-shirts in greater quantities and will use the loan to invest in material to produce more items. Holstee feels connected to Jadee's story, so we are proud to support her aim to achieve financial stability, which allows her to pay for her kids education. Elda Tenazoa Upiachihua

Elda is 35 years old, married and has two children, both of whom are school-aged and still dependent on her. Elda sells beauty products and gradually she became better known among her customers and residents of the community. She will use the loan to stock her business. We've chosen Elda because we are impressed by her tenacious spirit and wish to get ahead through her own efforts. Kiva.org introduces Elda as a "woman that is happy with the work she does every day and is grateful to the Manuela Ramos Movement for contributing to her meeting her goals and having her dreams come true."

Back in March Holstee made its first micro-loan through Kiva. Our first loan was made to Aura Elena Gutierrez Toledo, in Managua, Nicaragua. Here is a bit of background on Aura from her Kiva page:

“Aura is 48 years old, and she lives in Villa Libertad with her four children, ages 2, 5, 16 and 20. She is in the business of selling clothes and cosmetics on credit as well as for direct payment. She started her business eighteen years ago with her own money and help from her husband. With the loan she will invest in school clothes, school supplies and cosmetics. This is her sixth request. Her previous requests have greatly benefited her business as well as her personal life. With this loan she hopes to improve sales and gain more customers. Buying uniforms is a priority for students, so her short term plans are to invest more in them.”

Seeing the large smile on Aura’s face in this photo makes it hard not to want to contribute. Gaining our roots in fashion, we though our first loan would be best spent investing in the development of clothing in the developing world, while helping Aura support her family.