Archive for April 12th, 2008
Bonjour from Senegal!
Although we are not too active on the blog, there are a few of us Fellows here in west Africa, one of Kiva’s fastest growing partnership regions! I’m currently based in Senegal with CAURIE Microfinance.
For my first Kiva Fellows blog, I’d like to introduce you to a few of CAURIE’s clients: local entrepreneurs Awa Yombe Diagné and Mboudy Démé. I’ve had the pleasure of following their new loans on the Kiva site and meeting with them personally. While the economic and financial implications of microfinance and its impact on poverty throughout the world are incredibly interesting, equally interesting are the micro borrowers and their stories. Please read on to find out more about these Senegalese businesswomen!
AWA YOMBE DIAGNÉ: FUTURE REGIONAL TRADER
Awa lives in a village in the Thiès region of Senegal. She has been a customer of CAURIE Microfinance for several years and uses their micro-loans to stock and replenish her boutique. Awa is an ambitious business owner with a keen sense of marketing and customer service. Her boutique sells beauty products and household items and is the only one of its kind in the village. She provides a very important service by traveling to the capitol city, Dakar, and bringing back good that can only be found there. During holidays and various seasons of the year she stocks the store with goods that she knows her customers will need for parties and traveling. If a client requests something specific, she listens and brings in the requested items.
Recently, Awa began renovations on her store! Instead of pausing business during construction, Awa took her merchandise out of the store and went door to door around her village to sell the inventory.
Awa wants to eventually become a regional trader in West Africa. She hopes to travel to cities such as Dubai to import products for distribution in Senegal. To do so, she plans to become trained in management and marketing and to continue using micro-credit to reinforce and grow her business.
MBOUDY DÉMÉ: ANIMAL SALES STRATEGIST
Mboudy Démé has been in the business of buying and reselling goats and chickens with her husband for six years. They live in a very rural village near Ngollar, Senegal where water and electricity can be scarce. Mboudy has been a customer of CAURIE Microfinance for five years and has used their micro-loans for her business. She has implemented various strategies to mitigate the effects that climate and disease have on her business. During the driest season, there is not enough grass for her animals to eat and they become too emaciated to sell. So she uses her loans to purchase food and feeders to fatten them up. Through micro-loans, She has also ensured consistent and high quality vaccinations for the animals. Her animals survived a recent epidemic because of the vaccinations.
In the future, Mboudy and her husband hope to borrow a large loan to build a fenced-in area near her house to protect the animals from predators and thieves. During our interview, Mboudy kept reinforcing that there is a huge difference in the quality of her life since becoming a microfinance borrower. While she cannot make it rain or ensure regular electricity in her village, she can make improvements to her life on a smaller scale. With the expanded profits from the animal sales, she has recently purchased a water pump for her well, a television, and more nutritious food for her children.
Add comment 12 April 2008
The True Mission
Many Westerners come to Samoa and quickly make one of two judgments: all Samoans are poor OR no Samoans are poor.
That dichotomy can be perplexing, so I decided to engage a Centre Manager (loan officer) in a conversation about it. One who stood firmly with the belief that all Samoans are poor. None of this should be treated as a final judgment. Far too early for that.
To paraphrase:
Everyone in Samoa is poor, he stated.
If I ask the people if they’re poor, what would they say? They would say that they’re not poor.
So why do you say that they are? What do you mean by that? No one sleeps on the streets. Everyone has a home. The community spirit in Samoa would not allow anyone to be sleeping on the streets. No one is starving. Food is abundant. Using these gauges, a passing observer might instinctively decide that there is no poverty at all.
Many international relief organizations define poverty as living on less than $1 a day. By that standard, Samoa is considered one of the most impoverished nations in the developing world. But if you travel to parts of India, Africa, China, you will see emaciated homeless, tangible poverty. But in Samoa, though many live on no money, they grow their own food, make their own clothes. Without even property taxes, they can live self-reliantly. Plus, smiles are ubiquitous. Everyone seems content with their standard of living notwithstanding the tribulations of any society (jealousy, greed, infidelity, etc)
I had to dig deeper into how exactly this CM defined poverty, so I asked from a different angle. How will you know when Samoa is developed? What are the indicators? Many Samoans do not have electricity or potable running water. When they have those things, we will be developed.
But is that going to make them happier? Maybe, maybe not. I surmise that the overall happiness is greater here than in most, if not all, developed countries. Is electricity and running water going to make Samoa a happier, better country? Maybe, maybe not.
(I will resist entering in the dispute over poverty and development and happiness. The enduring “what’s really best for this country?” question.)
So then no one is really poor?
When I walk into a village for the first time that is not a part of SPBD, the women are still smiling. It’s our nature. But once they enter the program, I can see a different smile on the women’s faces. Starting a business, earning money, making payments gives them dignity. Everyone knows about money. Now they feel they’re a part of that system. I come from a poor background. Like most Samoans, I had a sort of poverty of the mind. Belonging to SPBD, starting a business, gives them a purpose, a drive, a goal. Pride. As an outsider, you cannot see this difference in their smiles. I don’t work here for the money. I can make more money at the National Bank. I work here for them. For a better Samoa.
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A cynic might say that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I want to feel good about what I do; therefore I will only see the good in what I do. But this CM, who I can attest to his blunt honesty, was only speaking with absolute sincerity.
SPBD’s stated mission is “to improve the quality of life of poor families of Samoa by providing training, unsecured credit, ongoing guidance and motivation to help the clients start, grow and sustain micro-businesses.” In reality, I would say that is the ancillary benefit. For this one CM, his mission is to fill a void of knowledge and purpose. Provide a sense of duty and accomplishment. Running water and electricity are the tangible outcomes of poverty alleviation. But in a country mostly content, the mission is increased dignity. Evidenced by a different smile that most outsiders will never be able discern.
5 comments 12 April 2008
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