Season’s Greetings from Comptel!

As 2013 comes to a close, it’s always good to take some time to reflect on everything that has happened this year. At Comptel, we’ve been very busy. During the first six months of 2013, we attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and Management World in Nice. We hosted our first regional Focus Group meeting in Bangkok for our customers in the Asia-Pacific region, and travelled with Finpro around the world to locations such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

For the past few years, Comptel has been sending season’s greetings cards electronically and donating the money saved from the traditional, printed cards to a charitable fund. This year, Comptel has selected UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, to support victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Last year, we started a project with Kiva, a non-profit organisation with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Our contribution to date has generated 23 loans in 17 countries. In 2011, our focus was on Plan International, one of the oldest and largest children’s development organisations in the world, which works to promote child rights and bring millions out of poverty. And, our donation for 2010 went to the Kileva Foundation. Since being established, the Kileva Foundation has seeded a plantation, and constructed a school and a medical dispensary. Our donation went toward the Kileva Eastfield Primary School to assist the building of a fifth classroom.

Now is also the time to look ahead for 2014! We’re already hitting full speed for Mobile World Congress, and during the first quarter, we’ll host a Focus Group event for Comptel’s customers in EMEA and CALA in Finland. It’s bound to be another action-packed year, and we’re excited to get things going.

From all of us at Comptel, we wish you a happy holiday!

Comptel’s Kiva Partnership: 1 Year, 11 Loans, 9 Countries

In late 2012, Comptel began working with Kiva.org, a group focused on lending funds for projects around the world. As we begin the New Year, we’ve already seen the positive impact Kiva has on communities in need.

We have made 11 loans – some bigger, some smaller, divided into nine countries across the world. Four of our original loans have been fully paid, and we have found new projects in new countries to fund since then.

Here are two recent recipients of Comptel’s Kiva loans:

Tatyana, Ukraine

Tatyana from Ukraine sells various retail goods at one of the markets in Pavlograd, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine. She has her own retail outlet, located in the food rows of the market. Tatyana has been in this business for 16 years.

Tatyana needed a small loan to purchase bags, jars, lids and other household goods for canning berries, fruits and vegetables. Summer is the season for canning for many people in Ukraine. Many Ukrainians love dachas and grow their vegetables on small land plots, and then can fruits and vegetables to prepare for the winter. Tatyana knows about this Ukrainian tradition and wants to get ready for the busy season and increased demand.

Phuong, Vietnam

Phuong is an entrepreneur who lives with her family in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. Phuong earns an income by running a business of producing and selling shoes. She started this business fifteen years ago.

Phuong wanted to take a loan to expand her current business. With the loan, she bought leather materials and accessories for producing a greater variety and quantity of shoes.

We invite you to take part in Comptel’s team and help us provide financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services. By helping people around the world build businesses, we can do our part to help communities around the world grow stronger and more vibrant.

Kiva Loan Helped Angelina to Pay for Gardening Materials Needed in Her Business

We have shared the stories about Rosario in Peru and  Williams in Uganda and how working through Kiva.org is improving their lives. Our third story tells about Angelina who lives in Silang, in Philippines where she and her family have a farm. Silang with over 200 000 inhabitants is approximately 45 kilometres  south of Manila. With the continuous expansion of Manila, the municipality is now part of the Manila’s conurbation. The primary crops grown in the area are coconut, coffee, corn, banana, pineapple, and tree crops like mango, guava, and avocado. Fertile soils and abundant water sources make Silang suitable not only for common commercial crops but also for high value and exotic crops production. Agricultural products are marketed to Manila and neighboring towns.

A loan of USD 750 by Kiva helped Angelina to pay for gardening materials needed in her business like wire and baskets, and supplies such as seed and fertilizer. Profits from her business will  help her to sustain their daily needs and educational expenses of her children. She hopes to have a peaceful life and dreams to give her family a good future.

We invite you to take part in Comptel’s team and help us provide financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services.

By today Angelina has already paid 16% of her loan.

The Difference Community Knowledge Workers Make

In late 2012, Comptel began working with Kiva.org, a group focused on lending funds for projects around the world. As we begin the New Year, we’ve already seen the positive impact Kiva has on communities in need.

For instance, 27-year-old Williams in Uganda is married with a child, and provides for his family by selling crops and livestock. A loan of $325 helped him purchase a mobile phone, solar charging set and weighing scale.

This loan is part of Grameen Foundation’s AppLab programme, where Community Knowledge Workers (CKW) are provided with this equipment to become knowledge centres for their communities. Williams looks forward to becoming a CKW, so that he may provide vital farming information to his community – helping them access information to improve crop yields, connect with various markets and, ultimately, generate more income.

Williams can also conduct mobile surveys to help local organisations better meet farmers’ needs. CKWs make monthly salaries based on the number of surveys they collect, enabling them to repay Grameen for the equipment. With the additional money that Williams will earn as a CKW, he will save to buy another cow, as he dreams of having a large dairy farm.

We invite you to take part in Comptel’s team and help us provide financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services.

Happy Holidays!

Each holiday season, we send our greeting cards electronically and donate the money saved from the traditional, printed cards to a charitable fund. In 2011 Comptel selected Plan International to receive our donation and in 2010 we worked with the Kileva Foundation.

This year, we have selected Kiva.org to receive our donation. Kiva.org is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Kiva lets individuals, groups and organizations to lend as little as USD 25 to help create opportunity around the world. We have provided loans to four individuals across the world; Williams in Uganda, Susima and Angelina in Philippines and Rosario in Peru. We invite you to take part to Comptel’s team and help us to help provide financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services.

To all Comptel’s customers, partners, investors and friends, we wish you a peaceful and happy holiday season and look forward to another fruitful and cooperative year in 2013!