With a generous donation of CHF 5,000 from the Bank CIC, we were able to hand out 20 credits to women in Kirinda, a fisher town east of Hambantota.  The Principal of the school with 500 students, a good friend of Roy, had selected the women for the program.

They all gathered in the school’s auditorium and Roy as well as the Principal spoke to them.  They emphasized that the success of the program would be entirely in their hands.  Their applications for a loan to start a livelihood had been approved while many other women had to be turned down.  Only the punctual and reliable settlement of their installments would make it possible to give loans to these women and others in the future. 

On top of that, the Donor would await a monthly statement and a failure would cut us off of any further donations from the bank.

The Principal and his secretary will provide guidance and help to the women personally and after three weeks they sent us the first pictures.  From the good experiences with the Micro Credit Program in Hambantota, we are confident and look forward to our next visit to Kirinda.

Currently, there are 14 Ladies with a Micro Credit in Hambantota.  Roy was able to hand out two more from the pool during the last year.  The long lasting success of the Micro Credit Program in Hambantota is not the least a result of renewing credits to women who paid their installments responsibly and in a rather short time.

As soon as there is enough money in the pool Sifany with the rice mill will get the next credit.  She sent us a letter asking for assistance to give her younger daughter into marriage.  We already helped out to get her first daughter settled and hope that one more smart son-in-law joins her family soon.