Kiva Stories from the Field

ProMujer, Bolivia

Hi All!
I’ve spent the last few days meeting with MFIs based in La Paz, explaining the Kiva model, talking with their teams, and most important of all, visiting their operations in the field. Here are some bits and pieces of my adventures….(excuse the poor quality of photos, I switched cameras today and it should be better going forward..)

Monday

My alarm sounds and I awake from a deep sleep, dreaming I am back at home. I’m immediately disoriented as I look out the window and see the towering valley walls dotted with lights that stare back at me as gaze out my 5th story window into the pre-dawn light. Rolling out of bed I get ready, head downstairs, and grab a minibus that takes me to the ProMujer Bolivia offices.

As we near the offices, my head wizzes with a cocktail of emotions–two parts excitement, one part nervousness, two parts facts I’m trying not to forget, and a generous splash of 12,00o ft headache. But no time to think! I’m out of the minibus and stuck between 4 lanes of blaring traffic. Phew, that one almost snagged my scarf. Whoops, theres another minibus overflowing with people. An arm here, a leg there. I smile and remind myself how much I love the madness of the developing world.

We spend the morning going over the common questions–How to payments work? Who uploads what information? How do we manage this and not change our operations? Which of our 80,000 (!) women borrowers do we select? 4 hours later I emerge into the afternoon sunlight with the next few days laid out and a meeting with another prospective partner, AgroCapital, on the horizon.

So its back downtown. I meet Jorge Nodas at my hotel, a delightful gentleman and the director of another of the largest MFIs in Bolivia, AgroCapital. We go to the same restaurant I dined with Jose and Miguel in the night before. The server gives me funny looks. Another man in a black suit, huh? I shoot him back a glance with my eyes…thats right! this is how I roll:) Jorge is delighted by our model–he’d never heard of it before but with a little help from some friends, we convinced him to carve out an hour for Kiva. He left bubbling with ideas, and as I write this I’ve already received their completed application. Less than 48 hour turnaround. Thats got to be a record.

So the day concludes with frantic email writing, a Spanish version of “Piratas del Caribe” in the local theater, and a walk through the cobblestone alleyways to check out the colonial architecture and feel the pulse of La Paz’s 2 million people as they got about their evenings.

Tuesday in the field

Up at dawn again and barreling up the mountain to El Alto with ProMujer’s Regional Director, Gabriela, I listen to stories of the organization’s beginnings and try not to choke to death from the fumes that stream into the backseat of our minibus. We make a couple switches, and then hop out on the carretera and stroll up the alley to their regional offices. Through the windows I see crowds of women dressed in long, thick blankets. A bright sign gleams from the second story of the building, “Programas para la Mujer.” We’ve arrived.

It doesn’t feel like this is the program that has served thousands of women in 5 countries. That is revered as one of the most successful initiatives of its size, earned global respect for its pioneering work with the poor. Nope, just feels like a cozy community center.

ProMujers methodology is based on peer group solidarity: Credit is issued in groups of 15-25 women that form “asociaciones,” which are then broken into 4 or 5 “grupos solidarios” of 4 women each. All of the women in each association must know eachother before entering the program (a proven solidarity group methodology), and together they work to approve eachothers loan sizes, develop their business skills, serve their families, and work their way, cycle-by-cycle, out of poverty.

I join meetings where women are learning about financial documents, debating the size and type of a loan of their peers, blessing the groups’ loan with cane sugar and prayers before distributing it out to the members. I sit with a special group of 4 as they work out the terms of the 12th loan cycle (!). Some of them pictured here, these borrowers have been with ProMujer for over 6 years, and all attested to the change the program has made not only in their income, but also in their lives. We laugh, listen to eachother, and play with the multitude of kids running about. I think to myself how proud I am also be a woman, and to be accepted into their group for the day.

As I head back down into the city, I stop by the national office for a few meetings with the financial teams. The day fades as we gab about numbers and projections, finalizing the partnership that will soon serve hundreds of women, and make it possible for this program to grow to new areas, and support more families. I glance up from my computer to see a poster with beautiful pictures of women dressing in flowing scarves, robes, brightly colored blankets. The millenium development goals are listed—Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger. Improve Maternal Health. Promote Gender Equality. Develop a Global Partnership for Development. Noble goals indeed. Daunting really. But I think to myself, if anything is going to change the course of our world, it will be a critical mass of people, each chipping in just a little bit for the good of all. Just a bit. Like maybe, 25 bucks:)

Until next time…..