Airstrip 0609 Group

Mazabuka is a small town that has a lot of business activity going on. This fact led the five women in Airstrip 0609 group to start businesses like restaurants, grocery shops and vegetable stalls. These businesses were well suited for these entrepreneurs because they used to work in similar businesses like these in the past and are conversant in running them properly.

The women are of the average age of thirty-six years and do these businesses mainly to feed their thirty children and pay towards their schooling. These children are a mixture of orphaned children that are relatives of the group members and the biological children. The group has both married and single mothers that are all equally hard working and are requesting a business loan from Lendwithcare so that they can venture into businesses that they have seen to be profitable in their community. Some of the women’s friends and family members help the group members run their businesses because they also benefit from these businesses.

The woman we shall be concentrating our attention on is Angela Kabwe (is the first woman on the right side in the group photograph and she is wearing the same black coat that she has on in her shop) She is thirty-six years old and has four children that are currently in primary school. Her family also includes her husband who is a worker at one of the companies in their locality. The couple jointly contributes towards all the financial costs in their home. Angela is happy that the grocery shop that she opened with the help of the loans has also helped her to start providing healthy food and books for her children. Her shop stocks washing detergent and snacks among other things and is found in the shopping complex of her area. Angela hopes that she can start raising chickens in the back yard of her home with her share of this loan and sell them in her shop to increase her profits.

The Microloan Foundation in Zambia lend to female entrepreneurs using the ‘centre’ model. A centre is typically made up of 3-4 sub-groups and these sub-groups almost always have five members. Each centre has its own name and the sub-groups within the centre share the same name. Each person within the group of five women is responsible for repaying her loan but the members support each other and if a member is unable to repay her loan on time, then the group assumes responsibility for repayment. Loan officers provide training to the groups, although it is expected that centre leaders will eventually assume responsibility for providing some of the basic training.

If you are lending, please be aware that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic your repayments could be at greater risk of delay or default.