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Whole Planet Foundation 2013-2014 Student Outreach Tool Kit

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Annonciata is a farmer in Karongi District, Rwanda and a client of Whole Planet Foundation partner One Acre Fund. She is the facilitator of the Twishyirehamwe group, which means "join together" in Kinyarwanda.

She joined One Acre Fund at the beginning of 2011, and planted maize and beans. She is 47 years old, and that season was the first time she had ever used fertilizer. She anticipates a good harvest, and was planning to save some bean seeds for planting the next season, keep some at home for food, and sell some of the harvest to invest in fertilizer for a larger amount of her land (she was not able to put all of her land under cultivation in the first season that she joined One Acre Fund).


Sanatu is a microcredit client of our partner Grameen Ghana. She used her loan to expand her rice processing business where she removes the husks from the rice kernels and sells them in the market.

As a side business, she sells a prepared rice dish called shinkafa da-wachi (rice and beans) made from rice and black eyed peas, with bouillon, salt, pepper, oil and then adds in either dried fish or sometimes meat. Additionally, she sells okra which is grown in a relative’s garden. Sanatu is currently managing a 400 Cidi loan ($220 USD) which is an increase from her first loan of 200 Cidis ($110 USD). Sanatu is working to support 10 children.


Bern is a client of Chamrouen Microfinance Limited client. Bern lives in Phnom Penh with her husband and their 2 sons. She is 47 years old and never advanced past fourth grade. This is because she was required to work at a young age to earn money for the welfare of her family. She does not regret this but rather is proud to have assisted in supporting her family and continues to have this perspective on life. Bern operates an independent recycling business which she has done for the past 10 years. Her line of work requires active labor most of the day, every day.

This is a typical work day for Bern. She starts at 6:00 a.m. by taking her cart to various local businesses to buy recyclable materials. For instance, she regularly purchases empty bottles from bars in the area, which generally are sold to her for 100 Cambodian Riel (about $0.02 USD). She usually returns home around 10:00 a.m. to cook for the family and take care of other household chores. During this time Bern also sorts and cleans the collected materials to resell. She is able to resell each bottle for 150 Cambodian Riel (around $0.04 USD), however if she cleans the bottles first she is able to sell each for a higher price of 250 Cambodian Riel (about $0.06 USD). After completing her work at home, Bern ventures out with her cart again around 2:00 p.m. She walks street to street looking for recyclable materials that have been littered or thrown in dumpsters. There are also various homes that collect their recyclables for her daily arrival. Bern says these families are very supportive of her business and are grateful for her daily service as it decreases their trash output. She usually returns home around 5:00pm, prepares the rest of the materials, and takes the daily collection to sell at a small local factory. After purchasing these items the factory takes all the products and ships them to be recycled in Vietnam. Bern returns home around 6:00 p.m., cooks dinner for the family and completes the rest of her home duties.

Bern is in the process of receiving her second loan from Chamroeun in the amount of 406,000 ($100 USD), over a four month term. Her first loan was also for duration of four months but for a smaller amount of 324,800 Cambodian Riel ($80 USD). Owing to the fact that she was able to easily repay the first borrowed amount Bern was given a larger loan the second term. She uses the money from the loans to buy recyclable materials from local businesses and build up a stock of items to resell. Before obtaining the loan, Bern borrowed money from her friends and neighbors to purchase materials. Although she was always able to repay the amounts borrowed with her profits, she enjoys the independence and flexibility the microcredit loan has provided her. Bern further expresses how grateful she is to her immediate community for providing constant support for her and the business.

The average daily income gained from Bern’s business is around 32,480 Cambodian Riel (~$8 USD). Previously she was making a net profit of 20,300 Cambodian Riel, about $5 USD. She attributes this gain to the microcredit loan which has allowed her to purchase additional recyclable materials to then resell. With the added profits she is able to save a sum amount of money and hopes to one day purchase land. Bern also has a large ambition to set up a small grocery store as she does not like being away from home so much during the day. She would like to be able to spend more time with her family and own a home.


Forty-five minutes outside of Sri Lanka’s capitol city Colombo, this microcredit client of Whole Planet Foundation partner BRAC LKA started a shop selling motorcycle parts. She smartly invites a mechanic to repair motorbikes there so that all parts used are from her shop.


Her name is Vanaja. She has taken out a loan for weaving. She had learned about microfinance activities from the center manager at the microfinance institution in India. Her first loan size was 6000 Rupees ($100 USD) and now she is in her second Loan of 9000 Rupees ($150 USD). She used her first and second loans to purchase thread and other items necessary for weaving.


Khem Kumari Gsale lives with her spouse and two children aged 6 and 8 in the neighborhood of Gogene in Kenyem in the Ilam district of the Eastern Highlands of Nepal. Khem use to pick tea leaves in the large tea farms surrounding the hills of her local community and sell the fresh picked leaf at a fixed rate to the local tea factories. This work was seasonal, labor intensive and demanding. With the combined efforts of her family, the household gained an income averaging 20,000Rp (~$ 250 USD) per month during tea harvest time.

One year ago, Khem and her husband decided to start their own processing tea plant from their home. They had observed the strong demand for hand rolled organic tea. The two combined all their resources to invest in the necessary equipment. Khem had previously received a loan for 20,000rp ($250 USD) from Nirdhan Bank to invest in ginger farming during the off season from harvesting the tea. She used her second loan of 40,000rp ($500 USD) to contribute to the start up business.

After a year’s time, a tremendous amount of energy and perseverance the company is doing well. Khem employees and manages 10 employees who help pick, roll, weather, dry, grade and package the tea. Khem and her husband now can focus more on supervision, marketing and shipping out orders. They offer 5 grades of tea. They now are exporting their tea to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and Eastern India through brokers.

The goal is to gain an organic certificate, adding extra value to their tea, and begin to export the tea directly themselves. The company has just recently begun to break even and although the first year has been challenging, Khem is optimistic about the future of their small tea processing operations.


Wilman is a young microcredit client in Ecuador who is building his business and improving his life with the help of microloans. He even helps build his community by making and selling the bricks that are used to construct many local houses.

Whole Planet Foundation partners with FODEMI in the Otavalo and Latacunga regions of Ecuador where Whole Foods Market sources Whole Trade Guarantee Flowers. With a $300,000 interest free loan, the foundtaion hopes to reach 1,000 new clients over 2 years


Jessica is a new client of Pro Mujer Peru in the Whole Planet Foundation funded Cusco branch. She is 33 years old

and has 2 daughters, ages 12 and 1 ½.

Her solidarity group name is called Las Golondrinas (which is a bird) and she is the treasurer of her group which

means she's responsible for collecting the payments from the other women in her group. Her first loan was for 1000

soles (about $375) and her second loan 500 soles (about $190). She decided to take a smaller loan because sales are

down this time of year as she generally sells more during the rainy season when she will ask for a larger loan again.

If you ask Jessica what she does, she will tell you she is a mechanic. She stands proudly and firmly and states that she

is a woman working in a man's world. She works with her father, brothers and mother and generally, has her one

and a half-year-old baby infant on her back while she works. She repairs motors of any type, mostly gas powered

motors such as those used in cement mixers and grinders for corn. She also manufactures hydroelectric generators,

called Peltons, for home use and sells them in rural communities which do not have electricity. She has taken

mechanic courses at the local technical school, but she first learned how to make the Peltons by looking at a model

on the Internet.

The family also has a brick manufacturing business which they work about two days out of the week. She's proud of

what she does and the skills she has learned from her father. She uses her profit to pay for her older daughter to go

to private school to get a better education.

Jessica dreams of having a larger mechanic shop, becoming an expert mechanic and having more income to provide a

better life for her children. She also wants to inspire other women to follow her example to do men's work. Jessica

dedicates her life to her work and her family.


Sabina was born an entrepreneur. After emigrating from Mexico in 1993, Sabina began working full-time in a factory to support herself and her family. To make ends meet, she started selling flowers on the street. Sabina’s friend told her about Grameen America two years ago, and since then Sabina has been a very dedicated borrower. Sabina put her first loan of $1,500 towards plants and flowers to grow her small inventory. Four loans later, Sabina had saved enough money to rent out her own storefront in Queens!

Sabina recently took out her 5th loan for $3,500 which she used to purchase a large refrigerator for her flowers. Because the fridge was a bit more expensive than the loan she was eligible for, she used her money from her savings—set up by Grameen America—to supplement the loan for the purchase of the fridge. With her official storefront and refrigerator, Sabina now supplies flowers for weddings, birthdays, and Quinceañeras.

Sabina recognizes that to grow her business even larger, she will need to expand past her own community in Queens. Sabina’s dream is to open a second flower shop in Westchester, NY where she knows there is a strong demand and limited supply of quality flowers. Opportunity is screaming her name!

Sabina is incredibly proud of her business, as she says, “in this life, anything is possible with hard work and perseverance”.


Marica runs a business of selling Ecuadorian earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces, bags and jackets, wool hats, gloves, scarves and key chains. She has been running the business for 10 years and is proud of her success. Marica joined Grameen in 2008 and is currently on her fifth loan. Like many small businesses, winter is her slowest season for business due to the cold, but also enables her to sell more winter wares.

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