Charity Kulola, Kenya

 Through microfinance, Charity Kulola turned heartache into hope. 

When Charity Kulola was sixteen, her father married her off to a man, already husband to two women, in exchange for money for land. During their marriage, Charity bore seven daughters. Furious that she never bore a son, her husband expelled her and their daughters from his home. When Charity’s brother took her in, his wife told her about Yehu Microfinance Trust, Grameen Foundation’s partner in Kenya. 

Yehu Microfinance Trust is a microfinance institution in Kenya and a recipient of financing from The Pioneer Fund. Grameen Foundation established this special fund to make sure that well-run local groups reaching the very poorest have access to the money they need to make loans and increase the number of women they serve.   

Charity received her first loan of $64 in Kenyan Shillings and opened a stall selling coconuts in the rural coastal village of Chakareli.  With her second loan of $128, she started selling vegetables, too.  Charity recently took out a loan of $102 to invest in a retail shop and diversify her business. 

Microfinance has opened up a world of opportunity for Charity and her daughters.  All seven are receiving a formal education, and the second eldest daughter is studying to be a nurse at a local medical school.