• Mikrolån i Cambodia

Mrs. Sim Sok and Mr. Pun Sambath

After getting married in Kampong Thom to Pun Sambath of Kampong Chhnang, Sim Sok, age 32, started her first business as grocer at home in Kampong Thom province when her husband was unemployed. In 2004, she decided to start a motor‐taxi business for her husband to be employed as a driver. She went to a HKL office to request a loan of US$300 to buy a second‐hand motorbike. Mr Sambath used this motorbike both as a motor‐taxi to support their family and also to transport groceries from the provincial market to their home for his wife’s business.

After she completed the first loan cycle, she decided that motor‐taxi driving is hard work that generates low income. Therefore, in the second loan cycle she borrowed US$500 to buy an oil‐run generator for charging customer’s batteries. The battery charging business has been successfully run by her husband because it is the only business in the community to provide this necessary service to rural Cambodians. The rural people of Cambodia do not have electricity, so nearly all families use batteries to power televisions, lights and other electronics.

In the third loan cycle she increased the loan size to US$1,000 in order to undertake home improvements and build a stand for the battery charging business.
She used the fourth loan cycle of US$2000 to create two new businesses: brewing Khmer traditional rice wine and raising pigs. These two businesses have a symbiotic relationship. The waste from the wine brewing is feed to the pigs, thereby cutting the cost of pig feed. She used this loan to purchase materials for these businesses such as wine brewing supplies, rice, materials to build a pig hut, and pig feed.

In January 2008 she begun a fifth loan cycle of US$3,000 to increase the stock of her grocery business to meet customer demand, buy new motorbike for her family’s transportation, and install a rice mill to create a rice milling business.

Sim Sok said, “I started my grocery business with a very old bicycle, then used the first loan to buy a second hand motorbike. That was the bridge which brought me to owning two motorbikes now, an old one for business and a new one for my family. I run multiple businesses at home and can afford to send all of my children to school. I am the first person to use a loan for business in my community, and now most of my neighbors have borrowed loans to expand their businesses.”

Kilde: http://www.hkl.com.kh/Index.html
Oikos: Hattha Kaksekar Cambodja