Update on Thuon Kh-Chorng

Update on Thuon Kh-Chorng
Entrepreneur: Thuon KH-CHORNG
Location: Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $125.00 of $300.00
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=11843

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Thuon lives on an island in the Mekong River north of Phnom Penh. This is the second loan she has taken out with Maxima. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.

Thuon and her family used the funds from this loan to buy more stock for her small grocery store, bricks and mortar to enclose the ground level of their house and fill-dirt to raise the level of their yard immediately surrounding the house to help keep it dry during the rainy season. She’s been selling groceries and supplies for just over three years.

I hand it to her for staying in business. Her house/shop is down a small footpath fifty meters off of the closest lane. The only houses I could see were the five that belonged to her mother and her siblings that comprised a small compound just in front of hers. Other than that, the area was trees or open grass. She says her customer base is comprised of about twenty families. Apparently people are willing to walk to buy from her.

She buys all of her supplies from the big markets in Phnom Penh. When I asked which one she replied as if it were obvious, “Wherever I can find the lowest prices.” He husband drives a motorbike taxi in Phnom Penh and he can also bring supplies she needs when he comes back to the island. She says her most popular items are in order: cooking oil, sugar and candy/children’s snacks. She use to sell more rice than anything else but the price has gone up so much and people use it in such quantity that they travel to the district market to buy it themselves. She no longer even stocks rice to sell. Rising prices are a continual problem for her. She says that every time she travels to the city to buy now, prices increase on every item.

Oddly, she stocks nothing in her store that comes from the island. However, when you think about the economic diversity (or lack thereof) on the island, her decision makes sense. Anything that comes from the island that she could sell; any potential customer could either make themselves or get directly from the maker cutting out Thuon as middleperson.

Longer-term, Thuon hopes to build a better house and save money so her two young children can study and get a high qualification.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia
Nov 5, 2007