Mi casa, tu casa: A Kiva Fellow at the Apoyo Integral field partner in El Salvador
21 January 2009 at 08:55 Samuel Baker 5 comments
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!
Entry filed under: Americas, Apoyo Integral, El Salvador, KF7 (Kiva Fellows 7th Class). Tags: FUSAI, Housing.
1. jess | 10 November 2009 at 06:02
i finally found this article! i was directed thrue lonely planet becuase i guess it was mistakenly posted there as ecuador information, please have them change this so other people can see the great thing you guys do in my country El Salvador.
thank u
2. We Buy Ugly Houses | 3 February 2009 at 10:27
Keep working ,great job!
==
http://webuyuglyhousesnow.info/the-changing-face-of-the-portuguese-property-market/
3. Thomas Ernst, CH | 25 January 2009 at 03:52
Hi Sam
I find your explanation of the interrelation between private (home) and business (office or workshop) very important. May I recommend that when writing an application for a loan, the micro-finance partner makes sure to highlight the positive impact of the home improvement on the business side. I would suppose that most KIVA lenders are not automatically aware of this connection.
I personally was reluctant to invest in home improvement for I didn’t see the value added to the economic situation. (Of course, I would be willing to donate somebody some money just to improve his living conditions, but that is NOT what KIVA is made for.)
Keep up the good work. I appreciate your personal sacrifice of time and money to do this important work for KIVA. I’m sure, the attention you pay to the micro-finance organisation as well as to the entrepreneurs in the field is as valuable to them as our money is.
et
4. Paula | 21 January 2009 at 22:17
I really enjoyed reading your article. I had been surprised as some Kiva members reluctance to loan for “home” development, and I couldn’t understand why. Surely a person’s home needs to be safe, secure and comfortable? Something that everyone wants and in many cases needs. I look forward to seeing many more loans to El Salvador home owners and will be contributing my $25 happily towards their future building prospects.
5. Unilove | 21 January 2009 at 12:26
This post was very illuminating, and really does help us to better understand the justification for home improvement loans and business development.
Thank you for this post. We look forward to additional insightful posts from you. They are read by us lenders and are appreciated!