Happy new year! Early last year, we were part of a Kiva loan for another sewing machine, this time to Vitolia in Samoa. In March Vitolia borrowed $700 to buy a sewing machine, thread, needles, a measuring tape, a new pair of scissors and material for her tailoring business. She repaid it over the course of the year, making her final payment just as 2018 ended.

We are once again proud to support a real sewing machine story, as we did for Lisney in 2015 and as we wrote about hypothetically in the early days of the Barefoot MBA. Like the hypothetical seamstress in our example, Lisney and now Vitolia wanted a sewing machine to make more clothes — and to gain access to the business world and to training for entrepreneurs. Ultimately all three wanted not just successful businesses but also to support their families.