Why invest in women?
- Women reinvest 80% of their income in the well-being and education of their families
- With the same amount of land, women can increase crop yields by 20%, reducing world hunger for 150 million people
- Women business owners s...
Story by Kiva Fellow Kari Derenzi and Crystal Chandy, Kiva marketing intern. Photos by Kari Derenzi.
This is part of Kiva's 'Invest in her, invest in change' series celebrating the power of women entrepreneurs around the world.
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Siem Khut has been farming rice in her rural village in the Kampong Cham province of Cambodia since she was 10 years old.
She "feels like an expert now" especially since she has "faced so many challenges: drought, flood, crops destroyed by insects, cows coming to eat the field..." You name it, she's encountered it.
With her rice field so far from her house, it can be difficult to manage without her husband, who works in construction in Phnom Penh. She occasionally sends one of her 5 helpful children, 2 sons and 3 daughters, to check on her rice in the middle of the growing season. But help can be sporadic as only 1 daughter continues to live with her.
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Siem Khut (right) and her younger sister, Hor Long (left)
Siem and her younger sister, Hor Long, took out a Kiva loan of $750 to buy rice seed for their farms, and to help them with the initial cost of farming supplied before harvest when they have more money to invest in their farms.
Siem was inspired to take the loan with Hor after seeing her sister's success: Hor has already successfully completed nearly 5 loan cycles with Kiva's Field Partner VisionFund Cambodia, which facilitates small loans to improve the lives of poor women and their children, and support small businesses in rural Cambodia.
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Hor's and Siem's children now have bicycles to ride!
Siem witnessed firsthand how Hor applied her Kiva loan to accomplish a great deal — from buying fertilizer to supporting her farm. Thanks to the resulting higher yields, Hor has been able to buy a new motorbike, send her daughters to school, buy a cow and renovate her house. Most recently, she used her loan to begin making garments in her free time. The sisters have also recently invested in new bicycles for their children.
As Siem and Hor share a single family dwelling, Siem plans to use her next loan with Kiva to buy a home of her own, continue investing in her children's futures and eventually afford more farmland. Together the sisters are building a better future for the next generation of their family.
Join thousands of other Kiva lenders backing inspiring women like Siem and Hor. Make a loan today on Kiva.org. When you invest in her, you invest in change!
