Soma is a Sinhalese woman in her early 50s, living in a rural village on the outskirts of Vavuniya, in northern Sri Lanka with her two girls. Her husband died during Sri Lanka’s civil war, and her entire family was displaced.
After the war ended in 2009, Soma was determined to rebuild her life. With the promise of a fairytale, she joined microfinance to begin a small business. Her dream was to build a small house and provide for her children. A decade later, after enduring violence and harassment at the hands of the microfinance industry, Soma now lives in the same half built house trapped in a debt spiral.
Soma’s nightmare experience has been repeated thousands of times by other women borrowers in Sri Lanka and Cambodia. These women borrowed to rebuild their lives after war but instead have been subjected to debt and violence at the hands of microfinance lenders.
