Kiva Welcomes First Partner in Egypt and North Africa!

Kiva is very excited to welcome our first partner in Egypt, and our first partner in northern Africa, Together Association for Development and Environment. TADE has been working to improve the environment and livelihoods in rural regions of Egypt since 2006. TADE provides poor people with business classes and individualized entrepreneurship coaching, as well as microloans. To improve community health, TADE also establishes community sewer systems, composting programs and housing improvement programs.

Since the Arab Spring of 2011, economic conditions in Egypt have deteriorated. Poverty is concentrated in rural areas, and youth unemployment is at 39% and climbing.[1] Kiva funding will help TADE provide financing for micro-business established by poor entrepreneurs, providing much needed opportunity in regions where jobs are hard to come by.

Some of the first Egyptian borrowers to be featured on Kiva are entreprenuers trying to build better futures for their families. Zeinab, a widow with 3 sons, has started a chicken-raising business to help support her family despite illness and difficult life circumstances. Abram is just 24 and started a cattle-raising business in order to save up to get married and start his own family. Saaid is requesting a loan so that his widowed sister, Fayza, can participate in his clothes-selling business and earn income to support her children.

TADE’s founder, Sameh Seif Ghali, grew up in the region TADE serves, and involves each village in the design and implementation of TADE’s programs. Thanks to TADE’s innovative work, Sameh has been recognized as an outstanding social entrepreneur by the Ashoka Foundation, the Schwab Foundation and Siemens Siftung, among others. Sameh and his team’s drive to find funding for entrepreneurs in the communities TADE serves allowed them to obtain the necessary governmental approvals to bring Kiva funding to North Africa for the very first time.

So, please join us in saying Ahlen wa sahlen (welcome!) to Zeinab, Abram, and the rest of TADE’s Kiva borrowers! You can support one of their loans here.