Archive for January, 2009
potato chips
Greetings from Zacatecas, capital city of the state of Zacatecas, Mexico! 
I have spent the better part of the week camped out in this fine colonial city to continue to bring ADMIC journal updates to Kiva lenders. Yesterday, I met Maria de la Luz and learned about her family’s potato chip making business.
This should have been a fantastic journal update for some Kiva lender but sometimes the great work of a microfinance institution (mfi) like Mexico’s ADMIC is not funded by Kiva dollars. As I am sure has happened to other fellows, the microfinance partner staff are so excited to introduce you to one of their most interesting and industrious clients that you are swept up in the moment only to return to your laptop after lots of walking, two buses and a taxi to discover (gasp!) of the 18 Maria de la Luz’s using ADMIC/Kiva funds for their business, the Maria de la Luz who makes potato chips in Zacatecas is not one of them. So in honor of all of ADMIC’s work, this a Kiva fellows blog entry. Not to mention I will take advantage of more room for pictures to share the story.
Six years ago Maria de la Luz, her parents and her brother began a potato chip making business. Her brother had worked for another person making the chips and convinced the family to get involved. The brother is no longer a part of the business but Maria de la Luz and her parents are still doing the daily labor of making the chips. For those of you have traveled in Mexico, you have likely seen folks selling chips in clear brand-free plastic bags, on the side of the road, in front of schools, on the bus, in the market. I always just thought folks bought huge bags of Lay’s and broke them down into smaller bags for re-sale. Maybe that happens, but I may have just been missing some of the finest potato chips Mexico has to offer.
Maria de la Luz and her family buy potatoes by the ton- typically six tons- to last them just about two months. The process is reasonably simple using only potatoes, oil and salt, but incredibly labor intensive. It sounds like simple but check out these pictures to get an idea of the work.
Every morning her parents are up by 7am cleaning the potatoes and removing the skins. I got there in the afternoon, so missed this step. Here are the potatoes they keep for the process.
the potatoes awaiting...maybe another two weeks worth
The potatoes are put into a slicer for…slicing. The pieces fall into a vat where they are cleaned.
From there the slices are poured into a huge vat of boiling oil presided over by her mom. The oil is changed a couple times a day to ensure it is fresh and the flavor consistent. When the color is right, Maria de la Luz’s mom sweeps them out of the fryer and sets them aside for cooling, a dash of salt and ole! potato chips!
scooping the potatoes from the fryer
Maria de la Luz then takes the boxes to the shop and bags them up for distribution.
I hope the scrappy pics do some justice to the work that I got to see. This family barely breaks even if the cost of potatoes or oil gets to high. They appreciate the loans from ADMIC. It has allowed them to purchase potatoes when times are rough and the equipment they needed to get the business started. ADMIC has been providing microloans in Mexico for over thirty years. They have branch offices throughout the country. ADMIC is one of Kiva’s long standing partners for the last 2.5 years.
Best- Megan
5 comments 30 January 2009
Beans, rice and a lot of Esperanza (Hope)
After approximately a year of waiting I finally made it to my destination: the micro finance institute (MFI) Esperanza/Hope International located in balmy, beautiful Santo Domingo! Kalie Gold (another Kiva Fellow) and Analin (Kiva Coordinator) have been gracious enough to show me the ropes, and there is plenty to do. Right now we are currently working on designing a short training course for getting better profile pictures, more journal updates, getting documents sent on a timely manner, etc.
I was really excited to learn that Esperanza/Hope International are getting ready to launch Kiva loans from Haiti! I am really, really excited that I will be part of this amazing opportunity. As many of you know Haiti, the least developed country in the Western Hemisphere, has been experiencing severe economic recession. This has resulted in the majority of its residents to live in extreme poverty. To give you an idea of the situation the current gross national income (GNI) is currently only $560 (USD). Haiti is also severely deforested, with estimates of approximately only 2% of the country forested. The economic and environmental conditions make Haiti a destination of UN Peacekeepers, and development organizations.
We will be traveling to Trou du Nord, Haiti to interview Kiva borrowers. I am unsure of how many loans will be posted. But I am confident that Kiva members will snap them up quickly so keep your eye out for the Haiti loans! I hope you will participate in the important challenge of alleviating poverty one micro loan at a time!
Esperanza/Hope International Central Office in Santo Domingo
This afternoon I had the pleasure to see a group of 5 women receive their loan money. I have to say when I saw the women get their money and talked to them about what they planned to do with their loan I got a bit emotional. One woman planned to sell men’s shoes, another a fruit stand, and another clothing. It is such an amazing thing to see these women get a chance at something more. One of the women told the loan officer that in two years she was going to have a bought a car by then and was going to stop by and pick him up! Now that’s confidence.
Analin, Kalie and I
Loan officer dispersing the loan money.
9 comments 30 January 2009
KF7 New Lender Challenge
Back at Kiva HQ, KF7 has made it to the the forth of five days of training. Tonight we are having the first “New Lender Challenge”. Teams have been divided up from Kiva staff and KF7 and the team with the most successful invites by tomorrow wins a huge prize. Please encourage your friends/family/contacts to register on Kiva tonight!
Register here:
https://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=register
Referred by a friend? (PLEASE ADD)
team3@fellows.kiva.org
Team 3 Members: Jessica, Brett, Jeff, Drew, JD, Brent & Nathan
Other good choices include team 1 (team1@fellows.kiva.org) and team 2 (team2@fellows.kiva.org)
- Team 1 Members
The challenge ends tomorrow morning so sign up SOON!
1 comment 29 January 2009
A Fistful of Dollars, Behind the Scenes: Volunteer Editor Helps Kiva Entrepreneur Reach Her Goal
Like the windshield on a motor-taxi in Phnom Penh rush hour, transparency is vital to Kiva’s survival. To give interest-free loans, lenders deserve to know that every cent of their money is being distributed exactly as promised, whilst borrowers have the right not to be misrepresented.
An important aspect of this transparency, and one which Kiva takes very seriously, is the integrity of the data on its website. Allowing inaccurate data is the first step towards encouraging fraud on the site, which would have severe reputational consequences for Kiva.
A key data check is performed between the time the loan is posted by the MFI, and when it goes live on the website ready for funding. At this point every loan is reviewed by one of a team of over three-hundred online volunteers. These language gurus work from all over the world to translate loans posted in foreign languages and edit those posted in English by Kiva’s field partner microfinance institutions.
This is a crucial link in the chain of events, not only because it ensures that Kiva lenders can understand business postings and thus make informed choices, that lenders are represented with dignity and clarity, but also because it is the one time that every single loan is scrutinized. Editors can, and often do, flag issues ranging from missing information in the loan description, double-postings, loan amount discrepancies, inconsistencies or problems with the borrower picture, to potentially controversial loans, such as a loan for a cockfighting business.
The Editing and Translation volunteers range from a high school microfinance club, to returned Peace Corps volunteers who want to continue contributing to the country where they were stationed, to young mothers home with their children who want to reach out to make a difference, to retired English teachers and technical writers. They are located on six continents around the world.
In my last blog I posted a video which followed a loan from London to Cambodia (A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story Of A Kiva Loan). The client that featured in the video was the smiley and exceptionally accommodating Van Makara, whose loan was posted by field partner AMK and selected by Danielle Lieu and my other ex-colleagues in London to be the recipient of their $25.
When the loan was posted to the Kiva website by Sophanith at AMK, it landed in the work-queue of Lorne Warwick, a retired high school english teacher. He immediately got to work checking the loan posting and editing the English to make it easily comprehensible (perhaps he should have edited this introduction too). His edits can be seen below.
Lorne Warwick has edited over six hundred loans in the past four months alone. And while no-one will ever really understand the complex algorithms running within Danielle Lieu’s brain that made her pick Mrs Van Makara for her first Kiva loan, it’s certain that Lorne’s edits did a fantastic job of making the loan posting infinitely more readable (ideal for people who are sifting through Kiva loans in the office when they should really be working).
Lorne Warwick: An Editor and a Gentleman
Lorne, a keen blogger himself, kindly agreed to write about his involvement in Kiva and what goes into the editing process. This is what he wrote:
Entry by Lorne Warwick, Kiva Volunteer Editor
As the editor of the loan to Mrs. Van Makara, the subject of the excellent video, “A Fistful of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan,” I have been asked to write briefly about my involvement with Kiva and what goes into the editing process.
A retired high school English teacher, my path to Kiva was largely serendipitous. In my first year of retirement, I purposely avoided making any commitments that would impose specific structure on my day, since structure was something that had defined my professional existence for 30 years. Content to take each day as it came, I busied myself with small home-improvement activities (never quite finding time for that major renovation needed in our basement!), an education research subcontract, and some sporadic writing.
My second year found me with a desire for a little more structure, so I began volunteering at a local food bank sorting and shelving donations. The very immediate results wrought by strictly physical effort were and still are quite gratifying. However, as time went on, I began to want to be of more service to others, never forgetting how fortunate I was to have been able to retire while still in my fifties, healthy and financially secure. The thought of paid work held no appeal. After becoming a lender with Kiva, one day I noticed a button on the site that said “Do More,” and to my delight found that the organization was seeking editors. The rest, as they say, is history, and I have now been editing loan descriptions for the past year, usually assigned two sets (with an average of 12-15 per set) each week by Kristy Harrison, one of Kiva’s volunteer coordinators living in England.
Perhaps the most powerful inducement for me in editing loan descriptions stems from my work as a teacher. I always had a special respect and admiration for those students who came to me, not to complain about their mark or try to wheedle a few extra points out of the old man, but rather were genuinely motivated to try to better their academic results. Essentially, they said, “I want to improve my work, and I want you to help me to reach that goal.”
Expressing such a desire meant I was at their service, and, in partnership, as long as they maintained that attitude and commitment, progress invariably ensued – progress not sudden and spectacular, but instead slow and steady. At the end of term, students would sometimes thank me for my help, but I would tell them that they had done all of the hard work – I had merely provided a framework and structure for their efforts.
This is precisely how I feel about Kiva, its mission, and my small role within the organization. The people seeking loans, already vetted and assessed by local Kiva financial partners, are the ones who bring the commitment, the motivation, and the goals to the deal – we are merely the conduit by which those goals can be achieved. Like the students I worked with for so many years, they have my deep respect and admiration, and I am happy to be of service to them.
Which brings me to the other aspect of Kiva that I find so immensely appealing: its model does much to renew the human spirit. I am convinced that the desire to help others exists in most of us, but this spirit of philanthropy needs regular cultivation. For example, many people have specific charities to which they regularly donate, and are quick to respond to pleas for money when natural and human disasters happen. However, these contributions are often made to large and seemingly faceless organizations tasked with dispersing the funds in a responsible and ethical manner. Our involvement in assisting the lives is thereby quite limited. The Kiva model, however, invites on-going participation in the lives of the borrowers, first as we select the region, the entrepreneurial activity and the borrower, and later as we can track the success of the loan through its repayment. The entire process is a steady reminder that we, as individuals, can indeed have a positive effect on the lives of our fellow human beings.
Kiva is an organization powered by a vision that is ideal for the times in which we live. While the events of the world and the actions of our leaders may frequently invite despair, Kiva is a vital reminder of the good that still exists, indeed thrives, in the heart of humanity. I feel privileged to be a small part of its efforts.
_____________________________________________________
Postscript
To view two more examples of loan edits, go to the following links
And to see a short video of live editing as it happens, check out the Cecilia Andoh loan live editing video
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If you or anyone you know would be interested in becoming part of the Volunteer Editing and Translation Team at Kiva, visit http://www.kiva.org/about/opportunities/ and follow the appropriate links.
6 comments 28 January 2009
Kiva Fellows Training – the jigsaw puzzle of 1,000 pieces
Training: After a long day at the office, the last session is held at a park.
Hi there!
My name is Boris Mordkovich and I’m one of the 28 Kiva Fellows [in training] in the KF7 class. In just a few short days, I’ll be finishing up the training, getting my last-minute supplies and headed to the cold, cold winter climate of Tajikistan.
As we come to a close of our 3rd day of training, there is finally a small window of opportunity to take a breath and reflect on this week thus far. And let me tell you – there aren’t a lot of opportunities like this during the week!
The training is designed to prepare a new group of fellows for field work at their respective Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) all over the world. But this preparation is unlike any other – it’s training on steroids.
Kiva has a pretty difficult task of “training” 28 people for something like a Kiva fellowship – as everybody’s experience will be unique in many ways. The needs of the organizations we will all be working for will vary. The countries and cultures that we’ll all be visiting are different. And our skill sets also range tremendously which impacts the type of contributions we can do.
During the week, we all certainly get a chance to learn the inner workings of Kiva, its business model and how it interacts with its partners, lenders and borrowers. The training program provides a ton of information on all things Kiva. However, since we only have a week, each day winds up to be very intense. And then, the deeper you dig, the more you understand how complex and and unique Kiva’s platform is and the more questions you wind up having.
If there is one major thread that goes through every presentation and every session, its the need to be flexible and fluid. There is a lot of trust and responsibilities placed in the fellows – we are given a lot of freedom in how we are expected to do things. And that’s what, I think, will make this both very rewarding and challenging.
Micro-Finance sector and Kiva are still relatively new, so there are a lot of unknowns ahead – but as Leonardo da Vinci once said, “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
Till next time – direct from Tajikistan!
- Boris
6 comments 28 January 2009
Unsafe abortions in Kenya
I am volunteering at Kisumu Medical Educational Trust (KMET), which began with the aim of breaking the silence surrounding high maternal mortality from unsafe abortions. In the Nyanza Province of Kenya, 42% of 15-19 year olds are sexually active, but only 11% use modern contraception. (Mitchel et al, 2006). Only eleven percent of sexually active teenagers use condoms, despite the fact that 15% of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS.
The KMET office has boxes and boxes of free condoms. I browsed the selection, impressed. I felt as though I was browsing the coffee options at the local Starbucks. Triple shot, no foam, tall skim latte? Meet ribbed, lubricated, vanilla-flavored, magnum-sized Trojan. I couldn’t understand why only 11% of teenagers would use condoms when they are so easily accessible, and in such a range of sizes and tastes!
Apparently, sex education classes are banned in Kenyan schools, so knowledge about reproductive health is scarce and largely inaccurate. Two KMET employees (Hesbon and Maureen) described some of the myths that circulate among teenagers in Kisumu:
- If you have sex with a condom, the condom will dislodge and swim through your body. The condom will come out of your mouth while you sleep.
- If you have sex with a condom, your body will react to the condom’s oils and your stomach will swell as if you are pregnant.
- If you have sex with a condom, you will acquire HIV. (Because supposedly companies inject condoms with the virus as a means of population control.)
- If you have sex with a condom, the female will feel intense pain.
Teenagers are largely ignorant about contraception, and as a result, 27% of 19-year old women in the Nyanza Province of Kenya are either pregnant or already mothers. (UNAIDS Report, 2006) These young mothers are usually thrown out of their homes and kicked out of school. They are left to raise their children alone, with no source of income or support from the government. In Kisumu, 100% of these teenage mothers earn less than $1/day.
The stigma and consequences of pregnancy therefore lead 252,000 15-19 year old Kenyan girls to seek abortions every year. (Kiragu et al, 1998) The problem is – - abortion is illegal, expensive and misunderstood. Girls are told that if they seek an abortion at a hosptial, the doctors will either sterilize them or block their vaginas so they are unable to have sex again. As a result, the majority of the abortions are performed in horrific conditions, often by the girls themselves. 1 in 10 women who obtain an abortion in Kenya will die. (UNAIDS Report, 2006)
Maureen told me about her friend Mary, who became pregnant at 17. In her bedroom, she took 12 malarial pills, strong juice extract, and an herbal drink she received from a back-door abortion clinic (which likely included turpentine.) While waiting for the drugs to work, she inserted a bent coat hanger into her vagina and scratched the uterus walls until she lost consciousness. Maureen found her, bleeding profusely and unconscious from the drug overdose, the coat hanger still inside her vagina.
Unfortunately, abortion is so stigmatized in Kenya that few clinics or hospitals will treat women who are dying from unsafe abortions. Maureen therefore had to find a car to take Mary to a special clinic 28 km away. It took her 1 hour to find a car and another 1 hour and 30 minutes for the car to maneuver the unlit, damaged roads. By the time Mary was admitted to the clinic, she was almost dead.
KMET is responding to the crisis by training and creating networks of health providers who offer women cheap post-abortive care. KMET has also established a Sisterhood for Change (SFC) center, which educates teenage girls about reproductive health. The girls (many of them mothers, orphans, high-school dropouts and/or commercial sex workers) learn about contraception, sex, pregnancy and HIV/AIDs. The girls then become advocates in their communities and are encouraged to teach others about safe-sex practices, particularly about condom use.
Where does Kiva come in? KMET has an extensive volunteer base of community health workers who visit the homes of HIV/AIDs patients to administer drug treatments and provide food. In gratitude for their help, KMET offers these volunteers low-interest microfinance loans, many of which are funded by Kiva. For more information about KMET, please see: http://www.kmet.co.ke/
***
And for the newly-departing Kiva Fellows, I offer a Luo proverb: Ariango misalo kichuo piere piny.
Translation: A real traveler doesn’t stick his buttocks down for any length of time.
7 comments 28 January 2009
In the Time of Voodoo and Soy Cheese
Dedokpo
Moise, the loan officer at Alide- Dedokpo, and I drove into the neighborhood of Aglas Hlazountas. In the mid-afternoon, the local market was pretty quiet, but we needed to scarf up some Kiva clients to interview, so Moise alerted the leader of the group, the woman selling charcoal. Evidently the word spread fast, because soon the Kiva women were upon us, joined by their entire group. Moise explained that the entire group consisted of 50 women who all shared the collatéral of the loan. Only a few of the 50 women were Kiva. They came ready to see us with baskets of wares on their heads. I asked for the honor of their photo. 
Moise explained to the leader of the group that only some of the women were to be interviewed. This caused some panic amongst the clients ; they assumed that the rest would not receive loans. Even though Moise assured them that they would all be receiving loans, some milled around, still upset.
The first woman interviewed appeared a little suspicious of me during the interview, but after her photo, Mouhïnatou Kadiri was ecstatic.
Mouhinatou Kadiri
She left to go sell her articles, trumpeting to the market that now she was sure to receive a loan because of the interview. Beninese ladies generally do not smile when photos were taken, but when I asked Chantal Akoutey if we could take a picture together, she got a kick out of it.
Chantal Akoutey
As I relaxed during the interviews, I found the women more open with me. One of the other women sold soy cheese. I explained my family at one point had grown soybeans. We finished up the market interviews and went to make house calls for the women who sold out of their houses or stores. Moise and I paid for cooked soy cheese from Madeleine Agbedevi; it was delicious, and very Californian.
Madeleine Agbedevi
By the time we concluded our last interview, late evening was falling in Aglas, and Maurice and I sipped our bissap, hibiscus flavored tea which tastes like cranberry juice, out of icy cold bottles and jumped on his Chinese motorcycle to head back to town.
Alide and Kiva clients and me
Voodoo
At the Alide head office the electricity was cut again, and I asked Landry to explain the key concepts of Voodoo to me. I was having trouble making sense of what I had seen at the biggest Voodoo festival in Benin on January 10. Why did the dancing practitioners cut themselves with long knives?
Landry explained that the Voodoo priests, or féticheurs, chose January 10 as a day of prayer, communion with Gods, jubilation, and initiation. Like Catholics, Protestants, and evangelists, Voodooists have different groups such as the Sakpata, Dan, Lissa, Hebiosso, Djaguidi, Zangbeto, Oro, and Egoun. The Zangbeto police catch bad members of the community; The Djaguidi are those that communicate with their god through or cutting themselves. The Oro do not allow women to witness their ceremonies, and the Egoun represent the African dead, brought back to life. According to Landry, originally Voodooists used fetishes to protect themselves against evil. Certain groups also injure their fetishes to cause pain to others. Many Beninese practice voodoo, but it is hard to pin down exact definitions of the religion.
Voodoo Dancers putting on palm paint
When a group of ex-pats and I headed to the city of Ouidah, the old capital of the Beninois slave trade on the Atlantic Ocean, for the January 10 Voodoo Festival, we were certainly not initiated into the practices of voodoo. We had no idea what to expect. What we saw seemed chaotic and difficult to understand. The dancers were half-naked men and women wearing straw skirts and coated in palm oil and sand, which looked like wet yellow paint. They carried long knives, with which they cut themselves repeatedly, mainly on the legs and arms. Although many of the dancers were young, they had deep scars on their bodies. Blood ran freely as they danced, and sometimes Beninese who were not dancers would become possessed by the spirit and throw themselves into the group of dancers, who would encourage the possessed as they hurled themselves into the sand. As the dancers cut so swiftly their knives became blurs, I grabbed my friend’s wrist, unable to watch, but willing myself to remember that this was a sacred ceremony. Because there was no discernible boundaries, the watchers, a mixture of Beninese and a smattering of tourists, stood around the dancers, but had to run quite frequently as the dancers changed direction and ran towards us. Periodically men who were not clearly affiliated with the dancers would demand money from people taking photos. The dancers never used knives against each other or against the watchers, but as they were possessed it was best to give them some room.
Talk softly and carry a long knife
Caroline cut into Landry and my discussion. “The majority of Beninese are Catholic and don’t like voodoo,” she said, “Voodoo has been commoditized to sell Beninese culture to tourists.”
Landry protested that it was still an important part of the culture. There were some tourists at the event, but the vast majority of the people at the ceremony were Beninese.
“Do you want to be initiated into Voodoo?” Landry asked me a little jokingly, who was not initiated. “Voodoo will bring you peace.”
“Don’t listen to him!” called Rosalyne the secretary firmly from the other office.
As my group departed the ceremony, deciding not to stick around to wait for other groups, the Voodoo cortege arrived, men and women dressed in white, the religious leaders of Voodoo in the country.
the VIPs
Another Festival
Next Friday night was Alidé’s annual party. All of Alidé staff was invited. Our emcee joked that he would auction off tickets to Barack Obama’s Inauguration. For the loan officers, head office, and I, it was a night of bonding. Potato salad, spicy fish, fruit salad, and Castel beer mixed with pineapple juice competed for our attention until midnight. Afterwards, there was West African tunes, salsa, and zouk, combined with a few Beatles songs. Alidé staff hardly ever go out and work long hours, but on Friday we danced until six in the morning.
Clement, a loan officer at Alide- Santa Rita, and his date
Sarah Lawson is a KF6 Fellow working at ALIDé, a microfinance NGO in Cotonou, Benin.
Add comment 23 January 2009
Used Clothing Sales in Northern Mexico
The sale of used clothing is one of the top micro-businesses in northern Mexico. The transport of used items across the US/Mexico border keeps some families fed and clothed.
There are those who dabble in the market and may have just a few items. The items might be for sale in front of their house on a clothesline or a blanket on the ground. The individual may have another business going on- a store, food sales or the like. Their items come from a range of sources- maybe their children outgrew it, maybe they need the cash more than the item, maybe they saw a deal and are now looking for some extra profit.
There are women- used clothing sales tend to be women- who have a greater commitment to the industry. They work the markets. Communities throughout Mexico, typically have their market days. Tuesday and Friday mornings could be in one location. Maybe Wednesday evenings are held in another spot. Saturdays they might head to another town altogether. Typically there is a registration fee to be paid to the group running the market of $M100pesos depending on the size o
f your stand. Some markets are more informal with fees paid each time a table is erected. These women have been putting up stands in the same markets for years. In addition to the casual customer, they have a loyal client base who has come to trust their selections.
Some women may purchase items in “pacas” or bulk. They may buy a hundred pounds or so sight unseen for the markets. With the average American tossing 68lbs a year, there are lots of clothes to be had. Pacas come rated by quality that also varies the price. Items that were discontinued or otherwise never worn receive the highest rating. Brand names- like Levi’s or Hilfiger- in good condition also can increase the cost of a paca.
The final stage is the woman who invests in a store front. She has a greater grasp of the small business market. Typically she can more quickly engage in a more advanced discussion about earnings vs operational costs beyond what is in the cash box. Some refuse to buy in paca. They don’t like putting their resources into this grab bag approach of items unseen. They prefer to cross the border and select item by item what they are going to take for sales back home.
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon is a mere two hours from the Texas border. Shopping across the border is so common that there is even a verb “McAlleando” used when somone is off to McAllen, Texas shopping. Although this is typically used in reference to the wealthier families of Monterrey who go to the malls in Texas in the same way that someone from Nashville might go shopping in Atlanta.
Used clothing venders might some may head to the state of Guanajuato, the most enterprising sellers
of used clothing travel to the border markets or cross the border into Texas. The Texas market was particularly lucrative back in the early fall when it was $10pesos to the $1. We are currently closer to $14pesos to the $1- that takes a huge bite out of a small profit margin. Before the currency fluctuation, people claimed they could make double. Buy a shirt used in the US for $2 and sell it for $4. The more experienced sellers talk about the market like a long term investor about his portfolio. There are good times and bad. These are some of the bad times.
Back home, items collected by local charities, but not deemed worthy of local resale are boxed up and either sold directly in lots at stores or even auction style at rates ranging from 37cents to 55cents a pound. Many of the items are taken to market with their original Goodwill or Salvation Army tags. By one estimate 50% of donated clothing is sold back to the same workers who made them.
Typically those who cross the border for clothing sales have documentation. Following a rigorous application process that centers around current employment and a vague assessment of your likelihood of returning to Mexico, a ten year visa can be granted. These folks cross the border to bring items back in for resale. The Mexican government has laws against the import of used clothing for resale. The number of items is vague. The customs agent tries to establish a sufficient number of items for the length of your stay in Mexico. Anything else can be heavily taxed.
The government believes the import of such large quantities of used clothing is hurting local manufacturing. The government hasn’t necessarily acknowledged the importance of cheap clothing to poor families. An quick look at the Sears at Monterrey’s Liverpool Mall is a good example. For the most part the items have approximately the same prices as any Sears back home. Same can be said for the Palacio de Hierro, a high end mall in Latin America’s swankiest zip code, San Pedro. This mall targets family incomes of $250,000 and higher- that’s dollars. A shirt for $1.50 or shoes for $3 can go along way to stretch the meager earnings- items not available at Liverpool or Palacio de Hierro.
5 comments 22 January 2009
Mi casa, tu casa: A Kiva Fellow at the Apoyo Integral field partner in El Salvador
My name is Sam Baker, and for the next several months I will be working with Kiva’s field partner Apoyo Integral in El Salvador. Having only been in-country for about a week and recently finished with an or
ientation of Integral’s microfinancial services, I thought I would take the time to highlight an especially unique feature of Apoyo Integral’s loan offerings in El Salvador: technical assistance in home building. Kiva community feedback coupled with longer fundraising times for home improvement and construction projects on the site suggests a slight hesitation among Kiva lenders considering a loan for the sake of home improvement. Having said this, it is not unreasonable to ask for example how a home improvement directly affects an entrepreneurs income, ability to pay off the loan and more importantly; provide a more secure and sustainable future for their families. Fortunately I had the opportunity to explore this question during my visit with Apoyo Integral’s sister project the Salvadoran Foundation for Integral Support’s housing technical assistance program: Tu Proyecto (Your Project). Tagging along for a day of work withTu Proyecto’s civil engineers, I watched how they offered their FREE engineering expertise to four of Apoyo Integral’s home improvement microcredit clients. Clients are advised on everything from cement mixing formulas, structural design, layout, ventilation, lighting as well as water and electricity issues. (In one case a technical assistance engineer was perceptive enough to recommend that a client might move a window to another wall closer to where he planned to place the kitchen table, thereby allowing his school aged children better light to study by during the day!) In addition to learning about a truly useful and uncommon service to homeowners in El Salvador, I also was also presented some data with which to respond to the “housing hesitation” issue: 3 out of 4 visits to Apoyo Lenders happened to be living and working under the same roof. The first lender was a photographer who was intending on building an addition to his house. The Tu Proyecto engineers advised him of a better way to secure his roof from the weather as they feared rain water might soon leak into his house, effectively destroying all the digital photography equipment he uses for his livelihood. The second lender was a farmer who needed to weatherproof his house to store grain, and the third was a carpenter who was building a larger home and considering how he could incorporate his workshop into the design.
Though these are only several examples from many, I believe it is interesting to illustrate how important a home can be for small Salvadoran businesses and indeed small entrepreneurs a
round the world. Not to mention all the benefits of health, safety, and personal dignity that come with owning a decent home. In short, here is Apoyo Integral’s value proposition to Kiva users who invest in their housing loans: Apoyo Integral uses the discounted capital received from Kiva to pay the Tu Proyecto engineers to do free construction evaluations for their clients. This means that in addition to clients being filtered for their financial ability to repay a loan, home owners receive professional engineering advice to ensure an effective investment in a family’s future!
5 comments 21 January 2009
Off to a running start in the Philippines…
Sipping coffee in the lobby of the Metro Centre Hotel, I waited patiently to be greeted by my new co-workers from Community Economic Ventures (CEV) here in Tagbilaran. I assumed I would be easy to spot – lone white guy with luggage – but some 20 minutes past our designated meeting time I started to get worried. As it turns out, they had been doing some worrying of their own while they waited in the opposite lobby just out of sight. We may have started off with a stumble, but otherwise things here are off to a running start.
CEV is headquartered here in Tagbilaran City on the island of Bohol in the southern Philippines but has 17 branches throughout the islands. While they are still in pilot phase and just started offering loans through Kiva less than 2 months ago, they’ve already become remarkably competent with the processes. Several branches have been identified as Kiva branches and we will be traveling over the next two months to train staff, interview borrowers and establish the value of affiliating with Kiva.
In early February I’ll be traveling to Mindanao which is the southernmost province in the Philippines and visiting branches in Agusan Del Sur and South Cotabato. Portions of Mindanao have been deemed unsafe as ‘conflict areas’ due to activities of separatist groups while other areas have recently flooded. But it’s important to note that the island of Mindanao alone is larger than Ireland and isn’t universally dangerous. In fact, the annual Billabong Cloud 9 surfing competition is held every year in Siargao. The remainder of my time will be spent visiting branches throughout Bohol which is known as home to the Chocolate Hills and miniature Tarsiers.
So, while my microfinance partner here is full steam ahead, I’m recovering from jet lag and travel fatigue hoping to keep up with the young, energetic staff here. I’ll be posting more about progress here in the weeks to come. In the meantime you can show support for CEV by joining the Kiva lending team found here: http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam?team_id=2754
7 comments 20 January 2009
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