At Holstee, one of our core values is to Pay-It-Forward and we do so by contributing 10% of all quarterly sales to Kiva to empower women around the globe thru micro-financing. I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of my favorite posts to write.

I get the same chills as with my previous Kiva post and I experience the same ambiguous feelings because frankly, it's still a bit strange to be "working" (read: lending money to women in developing countries so they can build their business, support their families, and serve their community) in New York City in the year 2011 on my MacBook Pro so far and removed from the people we are directly affecting. And I'm sorry if this is coming off a bit too altruistic, but I'm merely trying to express the bizarre realities functioning here. 

The drive these women have to take action and control over their lives and well-being is awe-inspiring and their stories deserve to be told as they are the epitome of what the great human spirit can accomplish when opportunistic circumstances are presented. 

The purpose of life is not to be happy-but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all. ~Leo Rosten

We continually strive to live a more conscious life and to carry out more conscious business practices and to "walk the walk" here at Holstee. That is our collective contribution to the world. And that is why I love working here. 

The 24 amazing women..

Lizbeth- Peru, Isabel- Peru, Angelique- Rwanda, Benita Angela Supo De Supo- Peru, Doris- Peru, Enarcita Bacordo- Philippines, Fiorela Juana Apaza Cuno- Peru, Engracia- Mexico, Gladys Karina Lopez Cruz- Peru, Juana- Chile, Julita Daniel- Philippines, Lilian Deloso- Philippines, Lilibeth Catingco- Philippines, Lorna Sarauz- Philippines, Maria Fernanda Aragundy Chica- Ecuador, Maria Marca Incacutipa- Peru, Maria Rosalina Naulaguari Zhinin- Ecuador, Maria Vicenta Pauta Duchi- Ecuador, Ma Eugenia- Mexico, Nadia- Rwanda, Nicolaza- Mexico, Reyna- Mexico, Nadezhda Kuznetsova- Ukraine, Eneria Tuastumban- Phillipines (not pictured)

 

 

 

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."

The Holstee Team is proud to declare the latest microloans on Kiva.org! This time we are able to support Lamin Tholley from Makeni, Sierra Leone, and the Fuente de Paz Group from El Seybo, Dominican Republic. Lamin Tholley: Here's a bit of background information of Lamin from his Kiva page: "Lamin is a trader dealing in used clothing at the main market in Makeni City. He is married to a trader and has two children in high school. He has eight years of business experience. He intends to increase his stock and to buy wholesale from Guinea and Freetown."

We selected Lamin because he is recycling clothes and we were impressed by the intentness he is willing to grow his business. He is really hard working, so he'll finally be able to assure further education for his children and to fulfill his dream of purchasing a piece of land for his family. The Fuente de Paz Group: The Fuente de Paz Group - which means "Source of Peace" - is located in the rural areas surrounding El Seybo where running water and electricity are not available most of the time. The group consists of 11 female entrepreneurs, all of them selling clothes and jewelry.

"Batista is the coordinator of the group, and her story is not unlike others in her group, and of Esperanza's Haitian and Dominican clients overall, many of whom have recently emigrated to the Dominican Republic from Haiti. Batista is excited to be taking her seventh loan with Esperanza, after having successfully repaid her previous loans which were used to grow her business. She plans to use this loan to invest in her clothes selling business by purchasing skirts, blouses, and pants in the main market at Santo Domingo and then reselling them in her community. She will use the profits to relocate her business to an area where there is more traffic, and also to get her legal documents in order so that she can go to the university." We totally love to support the women of the Fuente de Paz Group with their dreams, and that through Kiva, we can enable them to go to university... because education plays an important role for a sustainable development and lifestyle.

We are big believers in paying it forward.  So much so that this philosophy is built into the core of our business model- 10% of whatever you purchase at Holstee is used to empower entrepreneurs in the developing world through micro-lending. February has already proved to be really really exciting for us, so we'd like to pay this good fortune forward. We'd like to give away 3 x $20 gift certificates to our shop. The code below will work for the first 3 people who checkout. Enjoy! Code =  payitfwdfeb Just remember to continue paying it forward :-)

Starting with our next round of shirts we will lend 10% of all revenue, rather than a portion profits, to entrepreneurs and dreamers across the word. Why the change? Two reasons: Transparency and Long term impact Transparency We have chosen to lend money directly from our revenue rather than profit to ensure Holstee's impact is as straightforward as possible.  Profit is what is left over after costs are covered.  This often fluctuates and can be challenging to predict and define.  On the flip side, 10% of revenue is as transparent as it gets: 10% of all sales will be used directly for micro lending.  We want you to be fully aware of the level of your impact, so it is important for us to make that as clear as possible.  Also keep in mind- the dollar amount from a single percent of revenue can be expected to be far great than that of profit :-) Long term impact While the company could sustain lending 100% of profits for micro-lending, it would mean we simply would not be able to grow organically, without continuously taking out loans.  The ability to scale up quickly is super important at this stage and this decision will enable that to happen.  Our hope is to steadily increase the percentage of revenue we commit to micro-lending, to ensure we are always  at the highest percent we can manage. We hope to never stop learning, and as such we plan to consistently innovate through our products, business model and social impact. If you know us, then you know there are few things we take seriously; however this planet and people in it are close to our hearts. If you have other ideas of how we can better create a lasting positive impact through Holstee please share them with us, it’s your planet too :-) We are eager to hear your thoughts on this decision, please share feedback and ideas in the comments below: or call us directly at: (505) 500 - 4656 Thank you, Dave & Mike

Holstee is proud to announce our most recent microloans on Kiva.org! We have recently lent to the ‘Safina Namugerwa Group’, located in Kayunga, Uganda as well as the ‘Fatuma Nakibuuka's Group’ from Lugazi, Uganda. For this round we have selected to lend to ‘lending groups’ rather than individuals. We were impressed with the concept of that embraces the ideals of a community to help their fellow entrepreneurs meet their payments, and grow their businesses. The idea of helping fellow entrepreneurs, reminds us of our friends at the Sandbox Network, a network of extraordinary entrepreneurs across the globe. As entrepreneurs ourselves, Mike and I realize how valuable it is to have a support network who offer encouragement and inspiration and we hope these lending groups offer the same level of motivation for each of the individuals within it. Safina Namugerwa Group: Here is some information on the ‘Safina Namugerwa Group’ from Kiva:

Namugerwa Safina is the leader of Bunawona group in Kayunga. She is a businesswoman with a business selling used clothes at daily markets in and around Kayunga and Jinja. She sells ladies gomesi (the official dress for women in Uganda), bitenge (a dress using a particular fabric) and other casual dresses plus children’s wear. She has been obtaining loans for eleven years and has been able to pay school fees for her children all this while as she boosts her clothing business with more capital. She needs a new loan to help with buying more clothes for sale as well as paying school fees for her children.

Fatuma Nakibuuka's Group: Here is some information on the ‘Fatuma Nakibuuka's Group’ from Kiva:

Nakibuuka Fatuma has been able to pay back her previous loan on time because she was able to put it to good use once she received it. She is a businesswoman with a tailoring business where she makes dresses, skirts, blouses as well as mending those that are already made. She is married with three children and is also caring for two relatives with full responsibility for their welfare. Fatuma’s weekly income has increased over time, though her business booms mostly during the festive seasons when everyone is in the mood for buying new clothes. She is also a farmer with plantations and cows that all bring in an income. She needs a loan to be able to buy more clothing materials for her tailoring business.

We will be sure to keep you posted with any updates to these entrepreneurs and with our microlending practices!

We have just completed our second loan through Kiva lending $200 to Martha Luevano Lara in Cd.Mante, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Here is a bit of background from kiva: “Martha is married and has a 26-year-old daughter. She decided to put her own business in her house because she wanted to make the most of her time. She has always liked sales. She has been selling vegetables and fruit for 9 years. She started with the help of her daughter, and with little variety. Now she wants to buy more, in order to continue growing and to give the customers what the want.” Martha will be using the money to buy more fruits for her fruit and vegetable stand. At Holstee we love giving our customers what they want, and also love fruit so lending to Martha made perfect sense! UPDATE: This loan has since been refunded.

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.

For those interested in learning more about kiva and how it works check out this great video. That follows $25 from London to Cambodia. A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo. This video follows the path of a $25 loan from London, England to Preak Tamao village, Cambodia. www.Kiva.org is a website that allows internet users like you or I to lend money to people that need it in developing countries, with the aim of empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. To find out more, go to www.kiva.org