Kiva Stories from the Field

Asking Kiva Entrepreneurs Questions From Lenders

Last Wednesday Phanith, the AMK Kiva coordiantor, and I were very eager to head out into the field the next day to ask two Kiva entrepreneurs, the Siphat Yang Village Bank and the Chon Erm Village Bank Group, questions that I had gathered from lenders. Unfortunately, when we called the loan officer she told us that she got the dates mixed up, and that she had visited those clients the week before for repayments. Phanith and I knew that we couln’t let you Kiva lenders down, so we weren’t going to let this stop us! We decided to try to find the villagers ourselves… easier said then done.

We went to the Kandal branch office the next day. An area manager agreed to show us the entrance to the village on his way to a disbursement at another village. He drew us a little map and dropped us off at the entrance. Phanith and I hopped onto a moto and headed into the village, only to get lost very quickly.

Phanith tries to decipher the map that was drawn by the AMK Area Manager.

We started asking villagers for directions, but most of them had no idea where these clients lived and tehy mistakingly sent us off in the wrong direction. Finally we found a villager who knew these clients, HURRAY! He hopped on our moto and took us straight to them. Unfortunately, he took us down a road that was in horrible shape. Phanith tried to navigate the large puddles, but then we got stuck in one. Our moto started to lean to the left. Our navigator was smart enough to jump off, but Phanith and I were still on the moto. My leg was holding the weight of the moto and the two stranded passengers. After a minute, my leg gave way and down we went into the puddle. My butt went straight into the puddle. We decided to walk the rest of the way and we eventually reached the house of Siphat Yang.

White Pants, Brown Mud

Here are the answers to the questions asked by Kiva lenders:

Mary Larkin asked:

“Where do the business people get the goods in the first place?  Are the goods sent in by mail? Do the business  people have to travel to a larger city to buy the goods?”
Siphat Yang gets her goods from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which is about a 45 minute drive on moto from her village. She buys her clothes from Olympic and Chbar Ampil markets.

Yusuke from Japan asked:

“How much does their per day income increase because of loans so far? and why?”

Before Siphat took out a loan she was making about $1.75 a day. Now she makes $2-$2.50. She said that the loan allowed her to buy more clothes to sell. It also allowed her to sells her clothes to factory workers on credit. The workers would then pay her back when they receive their monthly pay.

Yusuke also asked:

“How do they cooperate with each other in the village after getting the loan?”
According to Siphat, whenever a group member cannot make a payment, the other group members must cover the difference. The group member who wasn’t able to make a payment is expected to pay back the other group members when he/she can.

Ms. Siphat Yang and her neighbor check out the Kiva business descriptions of the two loans.

We weren’t able to find Mrs. Chon Erm, so instead we posed our questions to Ms. Taing Im Sum who is another member of Mrs. Chon Erm’s group.

Dan Landrum asked:

“Is it at all a hardship to pay back or does the benefit of the loan truly make for increased profits, so it is easy to make the payments as the plantation grows?”
Ms. Taing Im Sum and Mr. Som Yang, another villager who is a farmer, agreed that the loan terms offered by AMK are very reasonable. They pay 2.8% interest monthly, which according to them is the lowest interest rate available. Mr. Som Yang stated that if AMK didn’t offer loans at interest rates this low, then they would not be able to borrow any money. He also joked that he wouldn’t mind if the interest rate was even lower.

Dan also asked:

“Would it be useful for Mrs. Chon Erm’s group to receive some exchange or training in the various aspects of their business, farming, marketing, etc.?”
According to Mr. Som Yang, an organization called IPM has come to his village to train farmers. They showed the farmers new fertilizer techniques and to limit the amount of chemicals used as fertilizers and pesticides. Before he received the training from IPM, he was able to grow one ton of food per hectare. Now he is able to grow four tons on his hectare of land.
Finally Dan asked:

“Is there anything else we might do to help them prosper?”
I didn’t ask this question to the villagers directly, but I told Ms. Taing Im Sum and the other villagers who gathered around about Kiva. I explained that thanks to Kiva, AMK is able to keep interest rates low. (In the picture below you can see them checking out their Kiva business description and photo). So Dan, one of the best things you can do is to keep loaning on Kiva and supporting other organizations that are not only do good, but also to make a sustainable change.

Ms. Taing Im Sum looks for herself in the photo of her group loan. (She's in the second row, third from the right)

Despite all the difficulty in getting out into the field, this was a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this! For those of you who were wondering, I have washed those pants three times with all types of detergents and bleach, but the stain is still there. Any suggestions?

To see a list of all the AMK loans that are currently fundraising on Kiva, click here.

If there aren’t any AMK loans on Kiva, you should check out the AMK Fan Club instead!!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I had the pleasure of meeting Yusuke a few weeks ago. Yusuke was in Cambodia to promote Kiva in Japan through the Kiva Japan Project.

21 October 2008 at 01:56 Sanjaya P 8 comments