By Aarya Mohey, BA in Supply Chain Management

Generally, Spartan Global Development Fund provides microloans to people in Latin America, in countries such as Columbia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. With these microloans, small business owners in these developing nations are able to put money towards their small business in order to increase their income and help provide and support their families and or communities. Recently, SGDF was able to lend to a woman living in Tajikistan, a country in central Asia.

Normally, SGDF loans to those who are in the agricultural, goods, and service sectors. But recently, in Tajikistan, SGDF was able to lend to a woman, Soyohat, who is trying to pay for her son's tuition at a university in their country. Living in the city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Soyohat is a mother of three children who has been a farmer for over 11 years. With the help of IMON International, a micro-deposit organization in Tajikistan, SGDF was able to contribute through KIVA to Sayohat’s $550 goal to pay her son's tuition. This loan is incredibly important because it allows low-income students to access higher education, which increases the amount of opportunities which they will be able to have. The money that SGDF lent will hopefully allow Sayohat to continue paying her son's tuition, and provide him with a degree which he can use in his future career.

With this unique loan, SGDF is able to expand the types of sectors which we loan to on KIVA. Although a majority of our loans are made to those in the Agricultural, Goods, and Services sectors, we hope that this loan will serve as one of the first for a future where we lend even more money out to the Education sector in foreign nations.