End-client stories
Meet some of our end-clients
The financial products, services and channels supported through SCBF-funded projects have touched the lives of over 2.9 million low-income end-clients, of whom 62% are women, since inception in 2011. Read the stories of Reem, Cancia Phedeline, and Rkia to find out the impact on their lives.
Reem fled from Syria to Jordan in 2013 with her husband and four children. When her husband lost his informal job due to illness, Reem decided to take up her old hobby of sewing by taking a sewing course in exchange for volunteering with an NGO. She applied for a loan with her son to buy a sewing machine and accessories and rent a small shop.
Reem turned the small shop into a modest workshop. “The ladies at the branch were so welcoming and friendly,” she said, adding, “MFW is the only organisation in Jordan that offers loans to Syrian refugee women, and I am honoured to be one of their clients”. She and her son, Suleiman, who had to drop out of college, work long days to mend clothes. “I accept the little hoping that something big will happen in the future,” says Reem. She wants to buy new machines and add dry cleaning to her services. She also hopes to save enough money to return her son to his Political Science studies and fulfil his dream of a job with the United Nations one day.
Reem (Name changed), Jordan
Cancia Phedeline (Gros Morne, Artibonite) has been an Fonkoze client for the past five years, and although she is no longer part of a Solidarity Group, she decided to continue as an individual client because “these women became part of my family; I don’t want to be separated from them.” By steadily using her credit to buy more merchandise and increase her profits, her business has grown. She no longer carries her merchandise in a basket on her head to the open market; clients come to her shop. She is grateful that she entered Fonkoze, especially for her child, who now attends school. As she puts it, “Our lives are steadily improving for the better, thank you God, and thank you Fonkoze.”
Cancia Phedeline, Haiti
Rkia is a fifty-year-old client of Al Amana. She lives in Kenitra, with her adopted daughter. Her husband passed away a few years ago, so Rkia makes her living through embroidery and sewing. Rkia discovered that she was suffering from diabetes. Diabetes had affected her eyes, she was not able to work effectively and needed surgery. She had the surgery done but had forgotten about her insurance. Her daughter reminded her to file a claim with Al Amana. After all the papers were submitted, Al Amana paid the claim in the amount of MAD 2’500 (CHF 240) within one week. “The procedure is good. They paid me a week later. They were polite on phone.”
Rkia, Morocco
