Benedicte Monroe    May 26, 2012

Hi Mrs Diaiite
I could accept to forgive part of my loan but not the whole amount and I do not know how to do in this software. Also it would be easier if the the whole amount of loan by borrower could appear in My Portfolio instead of the all these comments.
Best regards

Berthe Diatta    Feb 6, 2012

Greetings to all of Zidisha’s team. I am apologizing, one more time for my late payment due to the reasons that I already explained to your intern the last time. “Come on”! It is not because I do not want to honor my engagements with you it is rather because your disbursement date was not in line with the date I got the loan money. Basically I wanted to start my activities during the warm season but got the money when winter set in and everything changed and I did not see any customers. I had this loss of customer and then I got pregnant and had a difficult pregnancy. I was suffering a lot after I gave birth and was unable to pursue my activities. As of now I think I can start my activities again with the little bit that I have and I will be able to reimburse my loan.
Thank you

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Bonjour à toute l'équipe de zidisha. Je m'éxcuse encore une fois du retard de mon paiement du à des raisons que j'avais expliquées à votre stagiaire la dernière fois. franchement ce n'est pas parceque je ne veux honorer mes engagements à votre égard, mais c'est du à un retard du financement que vous m'avais octroyé. la date que j'avais voulu le pret n'était pas conforme à la date que j'ai reçu le pret et la période que j'ai voulu commencer mes activités est la période chaude alors que l'hivers étais dèjà installé, alors tout à basculé parce que je ne voyais plus de client. et j'ai eu cette perte qui m'a ammené à cette retard de non remboursement. ensuite j'ai eu ma grossesse et j'étais très souffrante, aprés mon accouchement les séquelles ne mon pas laissés. maintenant je pense pouvoir reprendre mes activités avec le peux que j'ai pour pouvoir honorer mon pret. merci

Julia Kurnia    Oct 20, 2011

Dear lenders,

I just spoke with Madame Diaite. Our Client Relationship Interns in Dakar had been hoping to visit her tomorrow to touch base on her business and assist her to propose a rescheduling of her loan. As it turns out though, Madame Diaite is in the hospital where she has just given birth to a son!

The telephone connection was not very good, but from what I understood both the mother and baby are doing fine. Following tradition, the baby has not yet received a name.

Congratulations to Madame Diaite and warm wishes to her family.

Best,

Julia Kurnia

Director, Zidisha Inc.

sasipodi    Aug 17, 2011

Salut Chers lecteurs,
Je m'appelle Issa Diop. Je suis stagiaire de zidisha au Sénégal. Je suis chargé de la suivie et du recouvrement des clients.
Aujourd'hui j'ai rendu visite à Mme Berthe Diatta qui m'a bien reçu dans son domicile. Cette dame avait bénéficié d'un prêt de la part de zidisha pour se lancer dans la transformation des fruits et légumes et la commercialisation des produits céréalières ainsi que le micro-jardin avec des personnes de son entourage. Elle utilisera finalement le crédit pour la transformation de fruits et légumes. Depuis le financement, Mme Diatta n'a remboursé qu'une seule fois et fait ainsi partie des clients les plus douteuses du réseau de zidisha. Aujourd'hui la rencontre que j'ai eue avec elle a été essentiellement réservée à des explications sur ses difficultés de paiements et sur des propositions de solutions.
Selon Mme Diatta la raison principale de cette difficulté réside dans le retard du décaissement de son prêt. En effet Berthe Diatta avait demandé son prêt en Juillet parce que l'activité de vente de jus de fruits et légumes est plus rentable aux mois de Aout, Septembre et Octobre parce que c'est la canicule au Sénégal durant cette période. Le financement lui est parvenu en Novembre, un mois qui correspond au début de la saison froide et où la consommation de jus frais n'est pas assez courtisée. De plus c'était la première fois que Mme Diatta prend en charge personnellement et seulement ce projet. En fait, Mme Diatta a participé à un projet mais c'était un financement collectif.
Aujourd'hui Mme Diatta est dans l'impossibilité d'honorer ses remboursements malgré la volonté. Pour rembourser,il faut absolument que Mme Diatta puisse reprendre ses activités et malheureusement, elle est confrontée à des difficultés sanitaires, ce que nous avons meme constaté à la suite de notre visite. En guise de solution, Mme Diatta entend modifier son calendrier de remboursement. Cependant, à cause de l'état de sa santé, elle ne se connecte pas sur internet pour voir la procédure de modification de calendrier qui lui a été expliquée par Aminata et moi même. Par conséquent, elle se déplacera personnellement et bientôt, selon ses propos, pour fixer un nouveau calendrier et espérer que Zidisha va l'accepter.
Merci!

Julia Kurnia    Aug 13, 2011

Dear lenders,

I spoke with Madame Diaite today regarding the status of her loan repayments. She had fallen behind due to a serious illness and hospitalization, and would like to begin repaying on an extended schedule. The Zidisha website now allows borrowers who have fallen behind on their repayments due to unexpected circumstances to extend their repayment schedules, while compensating lenders by paying interest at the same annualized / flat rate over the extended repayment period. Senegal is currently experiencing severe power outages, but Madame Diaite intends to do her best to go to a cybercafe and propose a new loan repayment schedule via our website during one of the brief periods when electricity is available.

Best regards,

Julia Kurnia

Director
[email protected]

sasipodi    Aug 12, 2011

Chers bailleurs,
Depuis des mois, Berthe Diatta n'honorent pas ses engageents. Pire elle refuse de répondre aux appels des stagiaires de zidisha.
Merci!

sasipodi    Aug 12, 2011

Depuis des mois Berthe est injoignable. Pire elle refuse de répondre à mes appels.

Allen    Apr 21, 2011

Hello from Dakar. My name is Allen and I am here in Senegal with Zidisha. I am meeting with borrowers here in Dakar to the benefits of Zidisha loans.

I recently met with Berthe and her baby girl at her home in Parcelles. As you might know she is having some difficulties repaying her loan. With the loan money she has bought a fridge to store fruit juice in. However, as it is no longer (but will be soon) the hot season, she hopes that business will pick up. She is now working selling clothes to make up for lost profits.

She apologizes for the tardiness.

Berthe Diatta    Feb 10, 2011

Hello, it's Berthe. It's been a long time since I've connected to the Internet, and I hope you lenders and the whole Zidisha team will forgive me, but from now on, God willing, I plan to go online every week. Bye and good afternoon.

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bonsoir c'est Berthe ca fait longtemps que je ne suis pas venu me connecter, vous m'excuser mes bailleurs et a toute l'équipe de Zidisha, mais dorénavant je viendrais in cha Allah me connecter chaque semaine. bisou et bon après midi

Berthe Diatta    Nov 22, 2010

Hello, it's Berthe. I just wanted to thank you for providing me this loan which will allow me to work. I am very happy and I hope that with this loan I can succesfully manage my business. Thanks and see you soon

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salue c'est BERTHE juste pour vous remervier de m'avoir octroyé ce financement qui me permettra de travailler. je suis très contente et j'espere avec ce prêt, pouvoir bien mener mes activités. merci et à bientôt

smonroe    Nov 10, 2010

Berthe kindly invited me over to her house this afternoon to talk about her business and future aspirations. See the comments below for photos from my wonderful visit.

• smonroe    Nov 10, 2010

  Berthe makes most of her money from selling fruit juices and slushes. Across Senegal, vendors freeze different fruit juices and pack them into plastic bags called "sachets". Customers then bite and suck into the bags to get to the juice. Berthe sells three types of slush flavors - buey (Senegal's national drink, sweet and cream colored, buey comes from Boabob seeds), strawberry and ginger. Berthe hopes to use her first Zidisha loan to buy a new and larger fridge to store her slushes.

  

  

  

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  • smonroe    Nov 10, 2010

    In the longterm, Berthe would like to earn enough money from her Zidisha loans to turn this abandoned yard in to a micro garden.

    

    

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Berthe Diatta    Oct 23, 2010

Good evening, it's Berthe.
I would like to show you again my gratification in regards to your efforts to help me increase my capital so that I can succeed. I thank you all tremendously

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bonsoir c est berthe. je viens encore une fois pour vous montrer ma satisfaction vis a vis de votre volonte de vouloir m octroyer un financement pour que je puisse reussir. je vous remercie et amplement

smonroe    Oct 14, 2010

Amidst Dakar’s dry concrete sprawl, Berthe hopes to carve out rows of tomatoes, eggplants, onions and lettuce.
It has been done before. Berthe’s mom, as chair of the neighborhood's woman’s association, started a micro garden a few years ago. Run by the association’s twenty members, the garden thrived by selling its produce to hotels, restaurants and tourists. “The Senegalese don’t eat too much salad, but the foreigners love it” Berthe explained. Berthe took an immediate liking to gardening, and backed by her mom, enrolled in NGO sponsored eco gardening classes. “ I eventually became one of the three ladies in charge of the garden”. Working as a collective was tough though. “All twenty of us had different perspectives, aspirations. We were not as efficient or productive as we should have been”. Divisions eventually ended the neighborhood micro garden, leaving Berthe without a job, but at least with a plan to support her family.
Berthe comes to Zidisha with the long-term aim of running her own micro garden. She is working from the ground up. While this loan won’t fund her garden, it can buy her a fridge. “ I will use the fridge to store juice from the fruits I grow”. While her family already owns a plot of land, Berthe will use the profits from her loan to buy fertilizer, seed and hired help.
Berthe concedes that she is a little anxious about starting and running her own micro garden, especially in an industry that is largely run by men. But, she quickly responds, “ with the force of character, you can manage anyone, even men.” On that note, Berthe strives to be a “ femme entrepreneuse”, a woman running her own business, profits and life. “I want to be my own boss and not rely on others, because people get tired of you when you always rely on them. This is the best way I can help my family".

smonroe    Oct 14, 2010

Hey, guys! My name is Steve and I am Zidisha’s Client Relationship Manager in Senegal.
While in Senegal, I will be meeting with Zidisha’s clients to understand their stories and help them connect with their lenders from across the globe.
Communication is fundamental to Zidisha’s microfinancing model. I’m here to facilitate dialogue between borrower and lender. I’ll be posting stories, photos and videos about our lenders to help bring their businesses and lives a little closer to you.
Please feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] and I’ll be more than willing to answer any questions, comments or suggestions.

Berthe Diatta    Oct 13, 2010

Hi, this is Berthe. Today is my first day with Zidisha and I wanted to thank you for helping me get this loan. I will send a longer message tonight.

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Bonjour c'est Berthe. je vous salue. c'est mon premier jour avec zidisha et je vous remercie énormément de m'avoir aider un prêt. Ce soir je vous enverrai un autre message