Vinolia

Impact: Vinolia has been using a loan from the Lumana Credit Cooperative to supplement her income as a fish monger and provide a better life for her seven children.

Lumana works to empower community members at several levels of poverty to create better economies for all. We believe that everyone is connected and a holistic approach to fighting poverty is necessary to create real change.

Vinolia has been a fish monger her entire life, and has just recently started selling spicy porridge to supplement her income. She joined Lumana in hopes of improving her business and is extremely determined to do so. After raising seven children, Vinolia enjoys resting when she is not hard at work. Vinolia’s children are currently helping her to make loan payments, so Vinolia can finish the loan cycle with the rest of her cooperative and take a higher loan to buy more fish.

A recent fire in Vinolia’s home left her with nothing. Because of low interest rates at the local bank, Vinolia leaves her savings at home under her bed – during the fire, she lost everything.

Thanks to Mifos, Lumana was able to easily establish her loan repayment status when her passbook which tracks her repayments and loan balance also burned in the fire. The Mifos notes section in her client profile enabled us to write out detail on how to approach disaster relief for her specific scenario and take a flexible approach to her loan repayment. All essential client information allowing us to serve our customers on an individual level with ease is at Lumana’s fingertips in each and every case like that of Vinolia.