Zakiyah (29) shares her tiny house in the poor neighbourhood of Kampung Melayu with 6 other family members. The family is still grieving the death of Zakiyah's mother who died of diabetis after the family ran out of money to buy her insulin medicine. The medicine had cost 50 Cent per day. To make a living, Zakiyah's mother had sold doughnuts to her neighbours while Zakiyah was selling clothes. The two had provided for the entire family. Now Zakiyah bears the burden of maintaining the family on her own.
On the photo from left to right it is Richo (loan officer from our partner NGO MMS), Nur'aini (head of Zakiyah's mother's credit group), Surya Singh (Management Trainee of Allianz out for a little microinsurance exposure) and Zakiyah.
Fortunately her mother had taken out a micro-life insurance with Allianz for a one-time premium of 1 Dollar. Zakiyah spent 50 Dollar of the 200 Dollar insurance benefit to provide her mother with a decent funeral. 15 Dollar were put a side as savings for emergency. She invested the remaining 135 Dollar into her own clothes business.
Today, Zakiyah has reason to smile again: "With the extra money from the insurance I can buy more clothes, and at a cheaper price. So now I can also sell more. Before, I only earned 2 Dollar a day. Now it is 5 Dollar, sometimes even 7 Dollar a day. That is more than my mother and me together earned before. Now there is even some money left to pay for a better education for my younger brother." Moreover, the life insurance paid off the outstanding debt of a 100 Dollar loan that Zakiyah's mother had taken from a local NGO to promote her own doughnut business. Another relief for Zakiyah and her family of 6.