MM's story

My name is M. M., married for 20 years, with 3 children, and living in Gayyara.

We were doing very well, financially, when my husband was working in Saudi Arabia. Then he got sick after which we had to spend all of our savings, even my gold, on his medication until he passed away. When he died, all I had at home was L.E 500, and I found myself alone without any source of income to cover my children's expenses.

One day, I heard about ADEW's Micro-Credit Program and met up with its employees who gave me all the information about the program. So I gathered 4 other women to form a group of 5 for the group loans, and each of us got a loan of L.E 300, alongside the financial training classes provided to us by ADEW. Adding this amount to what I already had, and using the knowledge I acquired from the sessions, I purchased clothes from Port Said and sold them to my neighbours, and managed to repay the loan on time.

I then got another loan of L.E 500 to expand my business, and also repaid that on time before getting a third load of L.E 1,000 that enabled me to sell many other products such as sheets, imported soap, toothpaste, spools of thread and more. Right now the people of my district know me and I can afford the expenses of my daughters' marriages.

Micro-Credit (Group Lending)