Update on Kong Chhin
Entrepreneur: Kong CHHIN
Location: Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $65.00 of $150.00
Entrepreneur: Kong CHHIN
Location: Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $65.00 of $150.00
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=11720
This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Kong lives on the shore of the Mekong River east of Phnom Penh. This is the third loan she has taken out with Maxima. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.
Kong’s primary moneymaking business is weaving. She used the funds from this loan to buy cotton and nylon thread. She learned to weave from her mother when she was in her teens but spent several years selling sweets in the local market. Four years ago she took up weaving again. Apparently, she plans to pass the skill down in her family. Beneath her wooden stilt house they had set up another loom where her seventeen year-old daughter is learning to weave when she is not studying.
Twice a month, Kong travels to Phnom Penh to buy her supplies and sells her finished cloth. The trip takes time out of her production but she gets better prices than buying and selling with middlemen in the village.
With the first loan she got from Maxima, she purchased a plot of farmland. Like much of the world, the price of land has been going up in Cambodia. She sold the plot for a nice profit and, for US $1,800, bought a smaller one with a house on it where she and her family now live. She proudly pointed to a charcoal graffiti on one of the floor beams: “May 17, 2004” (not in English, of course) – the day they moved into the house. Prior to that, they lived with her mother. Multi-generational living situations are the norm here.
With the additional profit from the farmland sale, Kong also bought two cows. She still raises those with the help of her son. They also continue to farm on another plot of land. Her husband’s main source of income is construction. His work is sporadic but, when he can find it, he makes about 15,000 Riel (US $3.75) a day. Kong sells her weaving for $6-$7 and she can make about ten pieces a month. Her daughter, combined with her schooling, can finish about three pieces.
Kong and her family sound prosperous on paper but the four of them live in a house so small most Americans wouldn’t accept it as a medium-sized bedroom. I asked what problems she and her family faced with respect to making money. Apart from her husband’s work being sporadic, she said the cost of her weaving materials continue to go up while the price she can get for finished goods goes down – a common lament of businesses the world-over these days. She also says that long days of leaning over the loom leave her arms and back sore.
When I asked her about her hopes for the future, she gave the pat Khmer (Cambodian) response: the best education possible for her daughter, hopefully even university.
Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Nov 7, 2007
This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Kong lives on the shore of the Mekong River east of Phnom Penh. This is the third loan she has taken out with Maxima. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.
Kong’s primary moneymaking business is weaving. She used the funds from this loan to buy cotton and nylon thread. She learned to weave from her mother when she was in her teens but spent several years selling sweets in the local market. Four years ago she took up weaving again. Apparently, she plans to pass the skill down in her family. Beneath her wooden stilt house they had set up another loom where her seventeen year-old daughter is learning to weave when she is not studying.
Twice a month, Kong travels to Phnom Penh to buy her supplies and sells her finished cloth. The trip takes time out of her production but she gets better prices than buying and selling with middlemen in the village.
With the first loan she got from Maxima, she purchased a plot of farmland. Like much of the world, the price of land has been going up in Cambodia. She sold the plot for a nice profit and, for US $1,800, bought a smaller one with a house on it where she and her family now live. She proudly pointed to a charcoal graffiti on one of the floor beams: “May 17, 2004” (not in English, of course) – the day they moved into the house. Prior to that, they lived with her mother. Multi-generational living situations are the norm here.
With the additional profit from the farmland sale, Kong also bought two cows. She still raises those with the help of her son. They also continue to farm on another plot of land. Her husband’s main source of income is construction. His work is sporadic but, when he can find it, he makes about 15,000 Riel (US $3.75) a day. Kong sells her weaving for $6-$7 and she can make about ten pieces a month. Her daughter, combined with her schooling, can finish about three pieces.
Kong and her family sound prosperous on paper but the four of them live in a house so small most Americans wouldn’t accept it as a medium-sized bedroom. I asked what problems she and her family faced with respect to making money. Apart from her husband’s work being sporadic, she said the cost of her weaving materials continue to go up while the price she can get for finished goods goes down – a common lament of businesses the world-over these days. She also says that long days of leaning over the loom leave her arms and back sore.
When I asked her about her hopes for the future, she gave the pat Khmer (Cambodian) response: the best education possible for her daughter, hopefully even university.
Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Nov 7, 2007
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