SELFINA
Clara Kwilasa, clothing store owner
Clara Kwilasa kept a small clothing shop when she took her first loan from SELFINA in 2007. She now has two storefronts displaying a range of clothing and cosmetics imported from the U.S. and Asia. She also wants to have branded shopping bags with the name of her store - Tinamaria Boutique - printed on them, "So my customers can do my marketing for me."
She hopes to use future SELFINA loans to expand her shops, where she already has four employees, and to add men's merchandise to the wide variety of women's apparel she sells.
She uses the income from her store to pay the school fees of her two daughters, and now she is able to send them to "a good school," where one has begun secondary education. She has also been able to buy herself a car, which can now serve as collateral for larger loans, and plans in a couple of years to build a new house for her family. She frequently recommends SELFINA to other women interested in starting businesses. "They are assisting us, and we are happy."
