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We’ve helped over one million South Africans create businesses, jobs and homes. Ma May is one of them. She’s been empowering friends and neighbors for many years. Familiar with construction from work in a brickyard, Ma May organized women in her neighborhood to save, borrow, build and rebuild their homes.
She and her colleagues were among the first in their community to build brick houses. They save and borrow through Kuyasa, a partner of Shared Interest that Is fast becoming one of South Africa’s premiere micro-finance organizations with more tha 6,000 clients (75% women). Over the years, Ma May has taken two loans from Kuyasa to improve her home in Khayelitsha, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town. Next year, with Shared Interest’s guarantee, Kuyasa will expand to serve 5,000 additional clients.
Ma May continues to lead her community in borrowing, saving and building, but now she and three friends have started a small business—sewing beaded clothes on discarded soda bottles to create dolls that embody young women’s hopes and dreams. They bought material with a loan from Kuyasa and have already received their first order. Building on this labor of love, they hope to expand their business over the next year and to serve as an entrepreneurial example to others in their community.
This holiday season, send a gift in a loved one’s name—one that resonates around the world. Welcome the New Year by helping us begin to reach the next million South Africans.