Riverkids' Microbusiness Loans help keep families safe

What would you do for a woman who is HIV positive, knowing that despite medication, her time may be short and eventually her children may be trafficked? The best time to intervene is now. We figured that if the family could earn a sustainable income and keep the children in school, a bleak end is most likely avoided.

We enabled one HIV positive woman and her sister (both in their forties) to operate their own business in the fish market. She was previously earning a meager income by fishing and that was not enough to feed the entire family. With the one hundred dollars loan we gave her, she was able to kick-start the business. Competition exists in every business but at least, they are now better off. They are able to support their children to school regularly, have slightly better and more food on the table each week and repay the loan installments regularly every month.

With the loan, they could invest, get bigger catches, sell more and generate more income.

Another woman, also in her forties, started a bread and drinks business on her push cart with a hundred dollars loan we gave her. Her daughter is now sewing school uniforms in our Bright Girls Programme and earning a percentage from the sales made.

With 6 children to support, more income earners for a family mean stronger financial support and less chance of becoming victims of child trafficking. Our loan offers a much lower rate than those offered in the market and given the extremely poor condition of the family, there is no way they could repay a loan obtained in the market.

Without the loan, the children may end up in brothels or employed in unsafe jobs in karaoke and bars. Today, their business is doing well and they even bought a cooler to sell cool drinks in Phnom Penh’s hot weather. We are glad they joined us and soldiered on.

Contributed by: Sinoy