Chim Di is a noodle shop owner with 20 years of experience within her line of business. She initially started selling noodles from her courtyard. For the past 20 years and until recently, Di started her day by working from around midnight to 5 a.m. Once the noodles were ready, her staff delivered them to retail stores and restaurants. The second shift was between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., and by the time the evening shift started at 3 pm, Di and her staff were busy making the dough for the next day’s batch, working round the clock. We-Fi provided a performance incentive to Cambodian microfinance institutions to increase lending to women-owned business. Through this, Di was granted a small loan to purchase a noodle machine. As a result, she doubled her daily noodle production to two tons, and grew her team from less than 10 to 18 employees. Automation helped Di and her staff work shorter days and stick to two regular shifts: 6 to 10 a.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. thus improving the work-life balance for everyone.
Read more about how We-Fi and the IFC are closing the gender finance gap in Cambodia here.
