Update On Channak Morn

Update On Channak Morn
Entrepreneur: Channak Morn
Location: Pon-Nhea Leu district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $42.00 of $250.00
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=17436

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Channak lives northwest of Phnom Penh in a village along the outflow river of the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest lake. This is the second loan he has taken out with Maxima. Prior to working with Maxima, Channak had taken out one loan from a Cambodian bank called ACLEDA. He switched to Maxima because of their better service. Maxima makes house calls to collect payments instead of him having to go to the bank once a month. His loan is being paid off on schedule.

With the funds from the loan he purchased an old Honda Cub 70 cc motor scooter. He also started a small business beside the highway that passes near his village cleaning motos and cars. Channak, 33 years old, also cuts hair, which he’s done for more than ten years and farms.

If Channak sounds like a busy person, he is. On the day we went to interview him, we were always one step behind. Someone at each place we asked said he’d just left. We had to make three stops – his home, the place where he’s set up the cleaning business a few kilometers up the highway and finally, a couple kilometers further, out in a rice paddy.

He and his 67 year-old father were bringing in an early harvest of rice. They said it would take about eight hours to cut, bundle and carry the sheaves to the moto. The area they harvested was smaller than many residential lawns in the United States. Even though he wore a broad-brimmed straw hat, you could see his smile from thirty meters away. Like many Khmers (Cambodians), Channak had a calm, smiling visage that Buddha himself would envy. Instead of me putting him at ease about the interview, his smile made me feel like I’d just reunited with an old friend.

His business cleaning motos and cars, though new, is doing well. On a good day he works on ten motos and three cars bringing in about 20,000 Rials/US $5 a day. He expects this to get better. His input costs come mainly from cleaning supplies and rent on the outdoor area where he set up the business. Up front investment included sign made and built a low, drive-up masonry platform so he can clean the undersides of vehicles. Water, from the Tonle Sap, is free. He employs one teenage-boy to work with him.

Channak has one son and one daughter, both of whom attend primary school in the commune/village. Also typical of Khmers, Channak helps to take care of his mother and father both physically and financially. As his businesses grow, his main goal is to make sure his family is secure financially and that his parents don’t have to work anymore.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Pon-Nhea Leu district, Cambodia
Nov 1, 2007