We partner with Peace Ministries in Malawi South Africa. The program director is Crosby Phiri (picture right). He has a degree in economics and is also working as the Commissioner of Taxes with the Malawi Revenue Authority. He has also been involved with training with Farming God’s Way, which is a training program offered by our South Africa Team. This program is just getting off the ground and we have very little other detail to date.
Following are 4 stories of loans and the back-stories (photos to come).
Pastor Bornwell Foloko (loan received in name of wife Martha Harry )
Amount received: 100 000 Kwacha
Ps. Bornwell is married and has two young children. He is pastoring a church in Luchenza in Mulajne district about one hour outside Blantyre. He received the loan on 12 th July in the name of his wife Martha Harry. His business idea is to travel to Blantyre and buy bulk clothes and then resell it at local markets. To date he has made one trip to Blantyre where he purchased 80 000 Kwacha worth of
clothing.
He has managed to sell for around 70 000 kwacha and still has a stock worth around 30 000 – 40 000 Kwacha. He is planning on making another purchase of more clothes to add to his stock. Currently he has been selling at markets one or two days a week. He has made the first repayment of 10 000 Kwacha. He has so far not kept a record of his business but has promised to start doing it.
Pastor. Heavens Kanduna (loan received in name of wife Memory Kanduna)
Amount received: 100 000 Kwacha
Ps. Heavens is married and has five children. He is pastoring a church in the outskirts of Blantyre. He received the loan 22th July in the name of his wife Memory Kanduna. He has found a market in second-hand phones. He focuses on cheaper phones costing up to 10 000 Kwacha in the second hand market. He goes to the city centre in Blantyre to find people looking to sell their phones. He then brings them home, repairs and cleans them and the go into town again and resell them. Normally he would buy and resell a phone in the same week.
He does not keep a record of his business but he estimates that so far, he has bought and resold around 20 phones. He has made a repayment of 20 000 Kwacha as he is first priority is to honour the loan. Currently he does have a stock of phones but in his business bank account he has 115 000 Kwacha. The loan has been a blessing to him as it has enabled him to have a capital base to work with. He said he has tried to save money before but he has not succeeded due to his many children to care for. He has committed to keep a record of his business from now on.
Veronica Jiya (wife of Ps. Charles Munyowa)
Amount received: 100 000 Kwacha
Veronica and Ps. Charles lives in Nkando, Mulanje district about 1 hour drive from Blantyre. She received the loan 9 th July to set up a small grocery shop in front of their house. They are running and managing the business together but Veronica is the one who sits in the shop most days. They started in August and things have been going well but been challenging. They have had a learning curve in finding what groceries that are in demand and also in quantities their stock should be. They have spent the full amount of the loan on stocking up and so far, they have not made a first repayment of the loan due to the slow start of their business. Most goods would have a mark-up of about 5 – 10 %. They have not kept a record of their business transactions but have committed to do so onwards.
Pastor. Henry Chibwana
Amount received: 100 000 Kwacha
Ps. Henry (pictured right) has for two years been doing church planting among the Yao people in the city of Salima located two hours east of Lilongwe. He is married and has three children. He received his loan on 1th of July. He has tried several different business ideas of trading clothes, selling phone data and selling fish. Despite making a small loss on his first trip of selling fish he has identified that as having the biggest potential. He will buy fish from Lake Malawi and bring it home to fry it. Then he will travel to a market and sell it. He has not done more than one trip as he was on a mission trip to Mozambique in August and since coming back the conditions for fishing has been unfavourable and making the fish expensive. He has kept a record of his business and so far, he has made a total profit of 7000 Kwacha and he has around 80 000 Kwacha in his bank account. He has not made his first repayment but will do a double next month.
