Pahima was just 21 years old when she divorced her husband and moved with her two small children back to her father's home. Over the next three years Pahima struggled to support a family of four.

In 2004, Pahima heard that SKS was opening a branch in her village. With her first loan of about $175, Pahima purchased five bicycles and opened a cycle rental shop. Pahima charged her neighbors about $0.07 per hour and $0.33 per day to rent her bicycles. A mid-term loan of $44 allowed the purchase of three additional bicycles. Before long, she was making about $131 per month. The steady income from her bicycle shop allowed Pahima to support her family for the first time in almost four years.

Early in 2005, Pahima learned that her village's SKS branch had a job opening. Pahima had completed the tenth grade and was very interested in SKS's work. She applied for the position and after an intensive interview process, was selected to become an SKS loan officer.

Pahima started working fulltime for SKS in March of 2005. She now manages 20 loan groups which consist of 605 clients and $64,200 in loans outstanding.

"I am extremely thankful for the opportunities SKS has provided me. I was unemployed and divorced when I took my first loan and struggling to support two children. With the income generated from that first loan I was able to get back on my feet and provide for my children. Now as an employee of SKS, I am honored to help other women, just as others helped me."

Over the last few months, SKS has been quietly preparing for what promises to be an extraordinary year for the organization. Instead of resting on our record breaking growth rate of 250% and outreach of 170,000, we have decided to push the envelope and attempt to scale even more rapidly. By the end of the next fiscal year, SKS plans to have over 700,000 clients, 360 branches and a portfolio outstanding of over $117 Million. That correlates to a growth rate of over 400% in all three categories!

In order to reach these lofty goals, we have revaluated the way we think about operations and further streamlined our systems and processes to manage the capacity. We have already recruited 35 new area managers to lead expansion efforts across the country, and will be adding approximately 125 new staff members each month. They will be responsible for starting operations in some of our existing areas as well as breaking new ground in parts of India yet to be reached by microfinance. But the plan doesn’t stop with geographic expansion.

We are also looking to add a number of products to our current offering to meet the total household demand of the poor, currently estimated at around Rs. 50,000 ($1,100), and reach additional client segments we are currently not working with. These include additional loan products, such as housing, auto and education, new insurance schemes for health, life and assets and unique services like remittances.

We’re bound to have some growing pains along the way, but strongly believe that in order to have an impact on poverty in India we need to reach as many poor families as possible. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to updating you as we strive for “7 by 7.”

- Vikram Akula, Founder & CEO

*As of January 31, 2006