Meet some of our borrowers
Channa
Channa is 30 years old and runs a food stall outside the Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap. This is a good location for a stall as the hospital does not provide meals for patients or their families so visitors will buy food for them. She also serves staff that work at the hospital.
Channa applied for a new loan as she found she was running out of food before the end of the day and had to turn potential customers away. With the loan she will buy new equipment for her stall (additional cooking and serving pans) and also more ingredients. As an additional advantage is that with the access to additional funds from the loan she is able to buy in bulk and benefit from the cheaper wholesale prices.
Channa and her husband have three children, aged five, six and eleven. She says she some of the extra income she earns through the changes made with the loan will be put towards her children’s education. Although state schools in Cambodia are free, the costs associated with attending school- books, uniform, transport, equipment- often mean families cannot afford to send all or any of their children. With her additional income Channa will be able to send all of her children to school. The rest of the additional income will be split between paying for some improvements to her small home and setting some aside for emergencies.
Channa says she is pleased JWOC is able to offer loans to small businesses as JWOC’s interest rates are lower than other places and they allow weekly repayments which helps with budgeting.
Kim
Kim, originally from Takeo Province, has lived in Siem Reap for a lot of her adult life. Since her husband left her a year ago she has been living with her daughter’s family. The picture shows her with one of her granddaughters.The money she earns from selling traditional cakes goes into the household fund to pay for food for the family.
The small loan Kim received from JWOC has enabled her to buy a bicycle meaning she can cover more distance and sell more cakes.She says being able to contribute more to the household fund has two benefits- the family have more to eat and can save a little money for emergencies and she feels better about herself, more proud. The $50 she borrowed from JWOC has made a big difference to her daily life.
Bopha
 Bopha at her clothing stall in the market |
 Bopha receives her 3rd JWOC loan |
Bopha has grown her business through several JWOC loans. She is 43 years old, and sells second-hand clothing from a stall at her local market. She obtains the clothing by traveling once a week to the capital city of Phnom Penh (a twelve-hour bus ride in total!). With her last JWOC loan, she opened a second market stall that she runs with the help of her son.
Bopha’s recently received her third loan from JWOC. With this loan, she hopes to continue to grow her business and to expand the products in her second market stall. She hopes the extra revenue will pay for her son’s college education and for her future, and she is proud to have her own growing business.
Salin
 Salin at her bamboo grocery stall |
 Salin is very happy to receive her first JWOC loan! |
Salin is one of JWOC’s new borrowers. She is 55 years old, and has been working from a small bamboo stand near her home selling products ranging from vegetables and spices to dried fish for over fifteen years. She currently makes around $5 per day, and as with many Cambodians, has no access to a formal bank loan. A JWOC loan is her best hope of improving both her income and her family’s life.
Salin has recently received her first JWOC loan to help grow her grocery business. She wants to use her loan to expand her product variety to include more beef and poultry, which she says will allow her to consistently increase her income to over $7 per day. She is married and has two children, and hopes this extra revenue will help her to pay for her children’s continued education.
Find out the answers to our Microfinance programme most frequently asked questions…
Read a volunteer's experience of visiting the microfinance project...
