Tusano 1108 Group

There are four women in the Tusano 1108 group, all from Livingstone. They are between thirty-one and fifty-two years old, some married and some are single. They have a total of 37 children, all of whom are in school. The members also have three other children who are independent wage earners in the women's businesses or elsewhere. They all receive help in running their businesses, either from their spouses or family members.

Linah is forty-eight years old and to earn an income she runs a shop selling blankets, sheets and quilts. By selling quality blankets, Linah has built a reputation and a loyal customer base.

Linah is a single mother and is extremely grateful for her business as she has been able to send one of her children to college and her last born daughter is in high school and getting excellent grades.

With her last loan from Lendwithcare, Linah bought large quantities of new stock and made significant profits. She ploughed some of the profit back into her business as working capital and used the rest to pay school fees and some household bills. Linah is a happy entrepreneur.

The Microloan Foundation, Lendwithcare's local partner in Zambia employs a unique 'centre' model for lending to female entrepreneurs. A centre comprises several sub-groups which share the same name as the centre. As such, you may have seen similarly named group loans from Zambia all belonging to the same centre. In this system, each woman is individually responsible for repaying her loan, but the group offers mutual support by assuming overall responsibility together.