The letter and story below was written for you by the Deputy of the CEO at SEF International, one of Kiva's Field Partners in Armenia. The organization truly appreciates your support and hopes you will continue lending to Armenian borrowers on Kiva.
Dear lender,
On behalf of beneficiaries in Armenia receiving your funds through Kiva and the team at SEF International, a Kiva local partner owned by VisionFund International, I would like to express sincere gratitude for your support to Armenian communities, where families are struggling for survival and dreaming for a better life “in all its fullness” for their children. Your loans have made a positive change in their lives.
I would like you to get a feeling of what your support really means and can do for villagers like Narine, mother of two, whose story is presented below.
Narine is from Noramarg village of Ararat region, where locals are mostly involved in land cultivation, particularly in vegetable, grain, and potato cultivation as well as gardening. The region is rich in pasture, so there are favorable conditions for cattle and swine breeding.
Narine’s family consists of her husband, her parents-in-law and two daughters (ages 7 and 4 years old). For many years, this hard working family has been running a farm. They had one pig and couple of piglets and also cultivated some vegetables. Recently they started to cultivate different agricultural products, namely tomatoes, cucumber and some greens. However, the family struggled to make ends meet and Narine had to work at local poultry farm to earn extra income. Her husband use to work as a driver at garbage collection service, but currently is unemployed and helps on the farm while looking for a job.
Narine decided to look for funding to develop the farm and generate more income. She heard from other villagers that SEF provides loans with favorable conditions to farmers to develop their businesses. Narine applied for a USD 1400 loan to purchase two mother pigs and forage for feeding them.
The loan terms were convenient for Narine and her family. The additional income that they earned was used for increasing their livestock through the addition of pigs, cows, and poultry.
Professional care of two sows resulted in seven more piglets. The growing income also helped to improve the living conditions of the family, thus creating lasting improvements in their lives. Moreover, Narine was able to purchase school supplies for her elder daughter, who enters primary school shortly.
As a very responsible and diligent person, Narine has been making monthly payments of her loan on time. Narine and her family are very grateful to lenders that supported their loan to be funded.
“Thank you for offering good loan conditions for rural people like us, so we are able to develop our farm and household. I appreciate SEF’s flexible work and value the professional and responsible job of its team” – said Narine.
Small steps make a big difference…
Sincerely,
Arsen Kuchukyan
Deputy of CEO, SEF International
