With a loan of $2, Biti Rose started making and selling a local version of doughnuts, which she initially sold for 2 cents each. “People really liked my doughnuts,” she noted, and soon she was making several dollars a day in profit.
Harriet Mbambo sells doughnuts in the Manyamula Village market.
Sounds like Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times is describing someone in the Manyamula Village Savings and Loans (MAVISALO) group!
Even though Biti Rose isn’t directly involved with Spirit in Action, this article and the wonderful accompanying video do a great job in describing the village bank programs like MAVISALO. Kristof claims that “These “village savings and loans” are among the hottest ideas in development work,” and at Spirit in Action, we couldn’t agree more!
I encourage you watch the video here: http://nyti.ms/N1LP6Q and read Kristof’s full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/doughnuts-defeating-poverty.html
** I’ll be on a vacation backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains next week. I’ll be back with a new blog post on July 24th!
Read more about Manyamula Village Savings and Loans here:
