Mrs. Donna Squire-Laing of Content District is a well known person in her community and also a committed Micro Entrepreneur who has been operating her own business for12 years. She has stated that she has never worked outside her home and as such has been self-employed for most of her life. Donna usually buys & sells chicken foot, liver, and soup bone in and around the Bog Walk, Linstead area.

One day Donna came up with an idea to start operating her own poultry farm of approximately 100 chickens every six week along with her cultivation of tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, sweet-pepper and other ground provision. Donna usually plant potted flowers as a recreational activity daily, until she noticed that every time she had visitors to her home, they kept asking her to set flowers for them, so she started to sell flowers. Nevertheless, after Donna killed, packaged and sold her first 100 chicken, Donna started to get a lot of demand from community members, shop, restaurants whom started to put in their orders from early for chicken. She had to expand her poultry business by rearing her chicken cycle of 100 chickens every three to four week interval

She was doing well until she incurred some losts to her poultry farm in the passing of hurricane Ivan in 2004. It was at that time she acquired a loan from MEFL, she applied for a loan of $50, 000.00 to assist her with the purchasing of additional livestock and hardware items and was successful.

Today, Ms. Laing is currently on her third loan cycle with MEFL and has proven that hard work, determination and discipline can help to achieve one’s goal in life. From the current loan proceeds Donna purchased an additional water tank because her community has no running water. Through MEFL, Donna was able to get the assistance she needed in her business that enabled her to make enough profit from the business to support herself and her family. She stated that it is her business that allowed her to pay her daughter’s tuition fee at Utech until she was able to complete her degree last year. As at June 5, 2008 Mrs. Laing has a savings balance of $36,842.42.

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