Matter to a Million—Helping Entrepreneurs Achieve Their Dreams

I just helped Pao buy some cows.

Pao is a 43-year-old woman who lives in Cambodia’s Kandal province. Married with four children, she has struggled all her life to support her family and get ahead. Pao works long hours as a grocer and also helps her husband, who earns some income selling water. Three of her children are factory workers.

Pao and her husband are determined to work for a better life for themselves and their children. That’s why she is asking for a loan of $1,300 to buy some cows so that they can breed calves to sell to increase their income.  Her dream: to be able to support her fourth child to go to high school.

I was able to help Pao thanks to Matter to a Million, a five-year, global partnership between the HP Company Foundation and Kiva, a non-profit whose mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Matter to a Million gives every HP employee a $25 credit to lend to borrowers on Kiva.

More than 125,000 HP employees have made $6.7 million in loans to help farmers, teachers, doctors, and business owners grow their businesses and help their communities, and the numbers grow every day. Matter to a Million is about making the world a better place through our actions and innovations—something that’s built into our DNA. It’s simply the way we do business, and we call it HP Living Progress.

It is humbling to think of all we take for granted while there are people in the world who do not even have the basic necessities. I’m extremely grateful to the HP Company Foundation for giving me the opportunity to help Pao. 

For more information on Matter to a Million, check out this animated infographic which shows how a loan helped Emmanuel, an artisan in Ghana; or visit our HP team page on Kiva’s website.