HOPE Congo's First Loans

On May 10th, HOPE Congo finally gave out its first set of microfinance loans to two community banks (EBEN EZER and Bonne Semence).  Each group has 25 members, and each member received a 250,000 CFA loan ($500).  


The leadership of each group comes to our offices to receive the money, so that our Loan Officers don't have to handle cash.

The first group disbursal of the day was with EBEN EZER.  They meet outside of a church near the largest market in Brazzaville,where many of the clients have their businesses.

The HOPE Congo staff reviewed the regulations and terms a final time and answered any remaining questions.

Our loan officers will oversee the disbursal and repayment meetings, but they will be conducted by the group's elected leadership.

The second group is called Bonne Semence and meets in a church located in the middle of local market.

 

Click here for the full album.

Final Training Meeting

Here are a few pictures from the final training meeting on May 6th before the loan disbursal of one of our first two community bank clients, EBEN EZER.

Getting Ready for the First Loans

The week before we issued our first loans to the first two HOPE Congo loan groups, members of the leadership team of the two groups came to our office for a final preparatory meeting.  The first picture are the leaders, and then the others include members of the HOPE Congo staff.

 

 

 

Rafting the Nile

Back in the fall when I visited Uganda, a big part of the trip was getting to raft the Nile.  The rafting company took pictures as we made it down the river, but not unexpectedly, the process of getting the CD of the pictures to me in Brazzaville took until a few weeks ago.  

These first and last few shots of where we put in and got off the river are by me, but all of the rafting ones are obviously by the rafting company. 

 

 

You could also bungee jump, but alas, we didn't have enough time to squeeze that in.

 

 

The four rafters on the right were the rest of my group: Sharon and Lambert - two friends from Rwanda, Michelle - an Australian friend who was living in Burundi, and Sentell - a good friend of one of my housemates who was visiting from DC.

 

All of these next pictures are of our raft.  At the end of the post there are a handful of the other boats in our group eating it pretty hard.

 

 

 

  The power and massiveness of the river were obviously something to behold.

Lunch break.

 

 

 

 

 

And here are some of the other rafts that went down with us and their wild rides.