klunpa01    Jul 17, 2014

Dear Lenders,

I am writing to inform you we have received news from Mme. Tall. A close family member was sick in the hospital and for this reason, she has been unable to make a payment. She has delightedly told us her family member is doing well now, and she hopes to make a payment in three weeks. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work with Mme. Tall!

Sincerely,
Paige Klunk
Senegal Client Relationship Manager

KirstenShute    Apr 21, 2014

Bonjour Fatou,

Merci pour votre dernier paiement. J'espère que la commerce continue de bien aller. Cordialement,

Kirsten S.

Pavane    Apr 5, 2014

Hello Fatou!
How are you doing? When do you plan making your next payment on your loan?
Regards, Pavane

Fatou    Feb 1, 2013

Good evening Julia, it's Fatou Tall I have sent you an SMS to increase the amount of my payment. Sadly for me, I did not understand that I could change it again a second time, but I continue to pay 30000f. I have a new account number for the end of the month and if i can pay 60000 for the months of january and february because I went to Mauritania for merchandise and sold them and then purchased other merchandise to take to Senegal.

*transator's note - comment from Ms. Fall seems incomplete, perhaps she was cut off from the internet part way through*

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bonsoir juiaa c est fatou tall je vous avez envoyer un sms pour augmenter le montant de mon verssement .maleureusement pour moi j avais pas compri que je pouver la changé encor une deuxieme fois,mais je vais continué à versé 30 000f .j ai relevé le nouveau numéro de compte ce fin du moi ci je verserais 60 000 pour le moi de janvier et février car j étais parti en mauritanie amené des marchandises les vendre ensuite acheté d autre marchandises les amené au sénégal ,

Fatou    Aug 10, 2012

Hello, it's Fatou Tall. I am supporting my family and so spend 25000 at the end of each month for rent, because my brothers have lost their work, so I am taking their place in paying the rent for our house. Because of this I must re-organize, to face my new financial situation. For this reason I would like to change my repayment schedual. Thank-you.

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BONJOUR C EST FATOU TALL JE SUIS SOUTIENT DE FAMILLE ET JE DOIT CAUTISER 25000 CHAQUE FIN DU MOIS POUR LE LOYER CAR NU DE MES FRERES ET EN CHAUMAGE DONC JE PRENDRE CA PLACE POUR LE LOYER DE LA MAISON .DONC IL FAUT QUE JE ME REORGANISE POUR FAIRE FACE A MA NOUVELLE SITUATION FINANCIERE .C EST LA RAISON POUR LAQUELLE JE VEUX FAIRE NU CHANGEMENT SUR MON CLANDRIER DE REMBOURSSEMENT MERCIE.

eagle3    Jul 9, 2012

Congratulations on receiving your loan. I applaud your willingness to work hard and use your own initiative for the betterment of yourself and your family. Best wishes for great success.

Halbergold    Mar 9, 2012

Today myself and Cameron, another intern, met with Fatou and her family. Fatou is showing strong progress on her loan, with almost 80% of it paid off. Yesterday, she took out the last portion of it. She has sold almost all of her merchandise–consisting of jeans and women's shoes at the moment, although she has also sold cosmetic products, blouses, and perfume.

Because she relies on the word-of-mouth of her friends to sell her products, she has found it difficult to balance her personal and business relationships but has grown a lot since the beginning of her loan and is now making her payments on time. She uses the proceeds from her merchandise to buy more at the central market in Dakar, Marché Sandaga, as well as to help support the seventeen members of her family. Currently, there are 6 other breadwinners in the family, working as vendors, accountants, civil servants, and electricians. However, she still finds it difficult to support her eight younger siblings–all of whom are in school, either secondary or university–as well as her elderly mother, and her baby nephew, Jacques Abdoulaye Tall.

When we walked into the house, we were warmly welcomed by Fatou. Over the course of the afternoon, we met her family, as well as various neighbors , and friends, one of whom, Dominque, is a fellow Zidisha borrower. We found Fatou cheerful and confident in her abilities both as a shrewd bargainer (she inventories in the enormous Marché Sandaga, no mean feat) and retailer. She proudly displayed the meager remains of her inventory, saying that she would have to restock far more quickly than she had anticipated.

Fatou is very motivated to pay off the rest of her Zidisha loan and ask for another one. She plans on using this second loan to continue building her business and supporting her family. Her long-terms plans involve renting a stall in the market next to the École Dior in order to have a home base for her increasingly lucrative and stable business, as well as a possible boutique, inch'Allah.

Neequayes    Jan 20, 2012

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with Fatou and her family. Currently, Fatou is very active in her cosmetic business. However, she has been having trouble making payments. She promises that she will be recuperating the rest of what is due to her so she can make payments by the end of this month. Fatou uses the reveunue from her business to help some of her family members go to school.

mdenti    Oct 21, 2011

Today I caught up with Fatou with Meredith, another intern here in Dakar. Fatou welcomed us into here home in the Parcelles neighborhood of Dakar right next to the ocean. Fatou lives with all of her family and we were able to meet her brother, who repairs television sets. We hung out, talked about the impact of her loan, and her future while watching some game shows on TV. I was taken aback by how welcoming Fatou was and she instantly felt like a friend. She even invited Meredith and I to play on her handball team sometime!

BUSINESS
Fatou buys and sells various cosmetic products, perfume and cologne, along with T-shirts. She explained that she no longer sells chickens because it became too expensive to pay for their food and cages along with the cosmetic products. She buys most of the products at Marché Sandaga, which is one of Dakar’s most sprawling and busy markets located downtown.

IMPACT OF LOAN
The loan from Zidisha has significantly helped Fatou. The main impact has been her ability to pay her way through school. She is a recent college graduate, where she received technical training in baking, and couldn’t be happier to have been able to use the profits from her business towards her education, made possible by the loan.

FUTURE
Fatou hopes to take out another loan to continue her business once she is finished repaying this loan. She wants to increase her profits by buying products from the Gambia, where goods are significantly cheaper, and sell them here in Dakar. She mentioned that she would have liked to sell medical products in the future but explained that it would have been too expensive and she was not able to pursue medical school due to lack of funds.

At the young age of 26, Fatou has been extremely successful with her business, while juggling school and her active lifestyle, like playing handball, and hopes to remain with Zidisha in the future.

melliecarma    May 21, 2011

hello fatou,

i don't know how you imagine a typical lender to be. but i guess that in most cases we are not rich people but ordinary ones who fight to make ends meet. in other words we are people similar to you who have to work 8 hours a day to earn a living. in my case i'm unloading trucks, trailers and containers the whole day from 7 in the morning to 5 in the evening. there are typically about 6000 cartons a day, each one up to 15 kg. you get the picture? ordinary man, pretty senseless job, doing that for 18 years now...

that's why i'm here, to find a balance, to do something which really makes sense.

unlike thepaddy i don't really mind if you're being one or two months late or not paying the full amount unless you pay it in the end. i know that living conditions in senegal can be challenging. hotelier and catering classes sounds good and should improve your living conditions, at least financially. but as money is not such important i hope you also have fun in what you do so you will remain motivated!

btw, nice photo. i like what i see =;-) i always love smiling faces - and people in africa always seem to have sunshine in their soul which radiates through their flashing smile!

wishing you that your dreams become reality,

thepaddy    Apr 21, 2011

Late is late and being late from the beginning is...make a guess!

Allen    Apr 21, 2011

On behalf of Fatou,

Hello, And my excuses for being late on my first repayment. I want to thank you all for giving me hand! My business is working well, so well that I have been able to pay for hotelier an catering classes for 6 months. I hope to get a job in this is field after the classes, and in the meantime buy a stove to start catering.

May god bless you all for helping me as life is somewhat hard here! However your financing has helped me a lot. My only difficulty now is collecting on sales I made on credit (which is inevitable in Dakar).

Here is a photo of Fatou with some of her beauty products.

Fatou    Feb 7, 2011

I would like to thank all of those who contributed to the funding of my business. I assure you that I will do everything possible to succeed and not disappoint those who supported me. Thank you again for putting your trust in me.

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Je remercie tous ceux qui ont contribué au financement de mon projet. Je vous assure que je ferai tout pour réussir et ne pas décevoir mes bailleurs. Encore une fois, merci pour la confiance.

• F

  Fabrizio    Feb 8, 2011

  My best wishes to reach your goals

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Fatou    Nov 24, 2010

Hello, it's Fatou Tall. I am Senegalese and 24. I am new to Zidisha, I'm waiting for your help on this loan so I can start up my business

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bonjour c est Fatou Tall je suis sènègalaise j ai 24ans je suis nouveau nouvelle avec Zidisha jj attend k vous m aider sur le prèt k j ai dèposè pour pouvoir dèmarrè mes activivè au niveau du comerce