Archive for May, 2009
What is your Dream?
What is your dream for your future? As a Kiva Fellow living in Puno, Peru, writing journals for Kiva and Manuela Ramos entrepreneurs, this is a question I have asked approximately 150 women. Over the last three and a half months, one of my main responsibilities as a fellow has been to meet the entrepreneurs of Manuela Ramos who have been funded through Kiva and to write journals about their lives, their businesses and the loans that help them succeed in these businesses. In order to gather the information needed to write these journals, I travel to bank meetings or to the entrepreneur’s homes and ask them a series of questions: How long have you been with Manuela Ramos? Do you think that the loans from Manuela Ramos have helped your business? What successes or problems have you recently faced? Because many of the women entrepreneurs conduct similar businesses, their answers to these questions are often the same. However, the question that provokes the same response more than any other is “What is your dream for the future”.
Growing a Business, Saving a Child
An estimated half of Kenyans with AIDS are receiving anti-retroviral treatment, only about a third of Kenyan children are. How can micro-loans help change this?
Continue Reading 29 May 2009 at 06:36 Brett Dobbs 3 comments
Who is this crazy gringo?
by Rob Mittelman, KF8 Peru
In the immortal words of Austin Powers, “Allow myself to introduce…myself”. My name is Rob Mittelman from Ottawa, Canada and I’m a member of KF8 headed to Lima, Peru to work with Edaprospo. When I’m not working as a Kiva Fellow, I’m a PhD in Management Candidate at Carleton University.
When I first traveled to South America and was called gringo, I was very defensive. I always thought it was a pejorative term for Americans. I’m a proud Canadian after all; I’m no gringo.
Finding Your Borrower Symphony No. 9
Three months ago, I came to Tarapoto, Peru armed with all sorts of tools to start my Kiva fellowship; cameras, powerpoint presentations about Kiva, books about microfinance, and a ton of information acquired during training at Kiva headquarters in San Francisco. While all these were useful, nothing could really prepare me for the most challenging part of my fellowship; finding the borrowers I had to interview to get journal updates for Kiva lenders. Just as my colleague Emily struggled to find Kiva borrowers in Puno, Peru, I had a similar set of challenges in the San Martin region, located further north in the Peruvian Amazon Basin.
As I finish my fellowship, it is time for a new cohort of fellows to take on the challenge. To the new KF8 class, I hope this video helps illustrate some of the challenges you will face. But before I sign off, one more word of advice: when you feel like pulling your hair out/crying/sighing loudly/giving up in frustration because you can’t find a borrower, just go to your happy place. And don’t pay attention to your wet socks.
Sending a shout out to the MFI staff who does this every day. From Tarapoto, Peru good bye and good luck!
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Hi, my name is Diana Rodriguez Wong reporting from Tarapoto, Peru.
To support Peruvian women entrepreneurs please visit the Manuela Ramos/CrediMUJER loan page or join the new Manuela Ramos lending team.
U.S. microfinance: Who’s on our side?
One evening last week, Brooklyns’ Borough Hall opened its doors to over hundred information hungry entrepreneurs.
Nydia Velazquez, A spunky and bold congresswoman addressed the diverse crowd of entrepreneurs.
This is what she had to say…
Nydia Velasquez from Erica Dorn on Vimeo.
The recovery package has included…
The economic recovery package will enable up to $50 million to be disbursed in small, community-based loans like microloans that are capped at $35,000 each. In addition to this money, $24 million in technical assistance grants will also be available for the microlenders.
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Erica Dorn is a fellow in New York City researching U.S. Microfinance. Please feel welcome to contact her at erica.dorn@fellows.kiva.org
Signing Off from Senegal
My memories of the last eight months away from home are a jumbled mass of color, freedom, fear, patience, frustration, and energy – raw, shifting memories that have not yet arranged themselves into neat, packageable stories that I can pull from the shelf at parties when I get home.
Watching Obama's Inauguration Speech on the Togolese Roadside
I have tested my sense of self against new backgrounds, ripped away the familiar context of home to hold my idea of “Abby” up to bright new lights. I have sometimes been ashamed of my reactions to new stimuli, and sometimes proud. Catching myself swearing under my breath at street children who asked a little too aggressively for money was not my finest moment; insisting that the Kiva Coordinator not fudge the dates to make loans eligible for Kiva’s website redeemed me.
I have learned about how microfinance operates on a day-to-day basis and about the difficulty of managing work and relationships across distances and cultures. Telling an MFI employee she did not have the IT competency necessary to be the Kiva Coordinator and watching her eyes tear up was my first real introduction to the uncomfortable realities of managing people. These challenges of human nature, of judgment, failure and success, cross all cultural boundaries.
Sunset Behind a Baobab, the National Symbol of Senegal
I have changed in many ways. After struggling for months with my pocket French dictionary, and then, this morning, listening to myself rattle off yet another training in French on sending journal updates to Kiva lenders, I felt like I had tangible proof of how I’ve grown since September. Other ways I’ve grown are less easy to put a finger on, and most will continue to be elusive for many months to come.
On legal courts and stock markets
Courts and stock markets appear to have very little in common. The first are a revered part of most countries’ legal infrastructure; we cannot imagine life without them. The second, seem to bounce from loved to hated and back again in a matter of hours and are often far from respected; some countries even believe they can do without them altogether. But what do they have in common?
They both play important roles in checking the status quo. Both institutions are often the only places that can bring powerful people and institutions to account for their deeds. Courts, with their sacrosanct independence from politics and private interests, are able to bring down decisions punishing anyone that violates the law or does not honor a contract. Stock markets, for their part, can punish companies that are not fully dedicated to implementing the strategy they promised their shareholders they would adhere to and implement successfully.
Connecting KF7 with KF8
Training week for the 8th class of Kiva Fellows (KF8) is wrapping up our fifth and final day. We have another remarkable class of 27 people who will soon be heading to 18 different countries to work with Kiva’s MFI field partners.
This morning I got word that a couple of KF7′s were collaborating on a response to this new class of fellows and we made sure that the KF8 trainees watched each hilarious video.
KF8 viewing Brett Dobb's video from Kenya
Unfortunately, the camera was unable to capture the roars of laughter to “ostrich” “technological devices” “replaced” “tweeted – great looking group”.
KF8 also watching Nick Cain's video from Paraguay
Kiva is all about connecting people. Thanks Brett and Nick for connecting via video with our trainees in San Francisco. Well done KF7 and good luck KF8!
22 May 2009 at 10:15 Zack Turner, KFP Coordinator 6 comments
I Don’t Want to Stop Being a Kiva Fellows 7th Class (Welcome KF8!)
The members of the seventh Kiva Fellows class (KF7) recently received some rather startling news: Kiva is sending out reinforcements. The team in San Francisco rounded up a new bunch of smart, capable, passionate people (creatively referred to as KF8) to fan out across the globe where they will meet Kiva borrowers, write journal updates, post enriching and exciting material to this blog, raise awareness about the work of their respective host institutions, and take cold showers for two to four months.
Upon hearing the news, Brett Dobbs (KF7, Kenya) and I were overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions. What if everyone likes KF8 better? What if they write more journals than we did? What if they have stronger stomachs or figure out how to talk to a borrower without falling off a chair into the dirt? What are we, a group of rugged, field tested KF7’s, supposed to do when our Kiva-ness is threatened by some newly minted, probably-smarter-than-us KF8’s?
And…
Looks like even though I’m not taking the news well, Brett’s pretty confident that we’re the best ever. So I guess until KF8 starts out-journal posting, out-blogging, and out-awesome-ing us, I’ll hold off on finding a way to get rid of the KF7 Para Siempre tattoo I got last week.
Welcome, congratulations, and good luck KF8!
Breaking up the Band
Over the last three months, four Kiva Fellows (Katie, Julie, Jeff and Drew) have been working and living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We are so lucky to have spent this time together in such a wonderful place. Alas, our time has come to an end but we have put together a video to share both our time at our individual MFI’s and our time together outside of work.
It is unusual for multiple Kiva Fellows to be located in the same city, but Phnom Penh is a unique place in the development world and the Cambodian Microfinance landscape is highly active – creating a phenomenal opportunity for us to share our experiences and learn from each other as we entrenched ourselves at our respective MFI field partners: HKL, AMK, Credit and MAXIMA.
While this is the end of our time together each of us will be moving on to new and exciting things. Julie will be attending law school in the fall (law school TBD ), Jeff will be begin studying for his MBA at MIT, Katie will be working with Microfinance in Cambodia in a new capacity, and Drew will be going to Kiva’s partner ASKI, in the Philippines.
We would like to thank all of our great coworkers, especially our Kiva Coordinators for all of their hard work and help. Also, a special thanks to all of the Kiva Lenders who make Kiva and all of our great experiences as fellows possible. We feel privileged to have been able to serve as Kiva Fellows in Cambodia and would love to see interest in Kiva and the Kiva Fellows program continue to grow. If you have enjoyed reading Kiva Stories from the Field please help spread the word and share the link with a friend!
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The Value of the Community Bank
Some of you may be aware of the definition of the Community, or Village, Bank and the role it plays in many Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, I’d like to offer a brief history of the Community Bank and it’s function in Manuela Ramos, an MFI and women’s movement in Peru. Although community banks operate differently in distinct countries and MFIs, the origin of the community bank and it’s general functions are usually the same regardless of the place of operation.
The idea of the Community Bank originated with the development of the first MFI, the Grameen Bank, in the early 1980s. Muhammad Yunus, and economists from Bangladesh, saw a great need for small loans to become available for the working poor in his country. Like any bank that provides loans, this bank needed a guarantee from the borrowers that the loans would be repaid. This guarantee could not come in the form of collateral, such as a house or automobile, because the borrowers, for the most part, had no collateral to offer. Therefore, in order to ensure the bankers that the loans would be repaid, Muhammad Yunus developed the concept of the Village, or Community, Bank, where groups of people from the same village would come together and take out a group loan to be used for individual businesses. In this way, the group members support each other in the development of their individual businesses and guarantee that each member will repay his or her loan. Over the last 30 years as MFIs have started in much of the developing world, the practice of Community Banking has spread and been adapted to fit the needs of the specific MFIs.
“When We Are Together….We Are One.”
Arguably the best things about GHAPE is the execution of their social mission. They take a lot of pride in fostering a sense of community that not only educates their borrowers on topics such as loan management and hygiene, but also allows their members to feel apart of a group that shares in their triumphs and losses. GHAPE organizes centers so that borrowers feel comfortable speaking in their center, and at the same time, there is a professionalism during the meetings. Visiting now 12 of the 28 centers, the slight differences in each center shows that GHAPE gives centers the autonomy to write their own rules, as well as follow some of GHAPE’s etiquette standards (such as not speaking when someone has the floor). GHAPE, for some members, may be the only membership they have, where there are firm standards and accountability, coupled with a sense of empowerment.
GHAPE Members - Women's Day
Becoming Part of the KIVA Team
By Velizara Passajova, KF8 Bosnia, Armenia
Hello, my name is Velizara and I am from Sofia, Bulgaria. I am currently enjoying KIVA Fellows Training in San Francisco. After I finish my junior spring at Dartmouth College, I will head to Sarajevo, Bosnia to work with “Zene za Zene International” from June-July 2009. In August-September 2009, I will be in Yerevan, Armenia. My job is to help establish KIVA and open up additional oportunities for lending to entrepreneurs in Eastern Europe.
KIVA is so exciting! Please, join our cause!
To see my blog, please go to http://vialittlepassion.wordpress.com/&_tpg=fb
To learn more about “Zene za Zene International” (Bosnia), please go to http://www.kiva.org/about/aboutPartner?id=101&_tpg=fb
Are you going to San Francisco?
By Laura Buhler, KF8 Rwanda
Hello Kiva Friends!
I am Laura Buhler and I am a Kiva Fellow 8 trainee at Kiva headquarters in San Francisco. I will be heading to Kigali, Rwanda for about three months this summer. In celebration of this placement, I have loaned $25 to Joselyne, an entrepreneur in Kigali.
If you are interested in learning more about Kiva, Kiva Fellows, or microfinance in general, please stay posted with the Kiva Fellows Blog.
I encourage all of my readers to make a loan to an entrepreneur in Rwanda or around the world.
Microfinance and the Millennium Development Goals
Microfinance, while not the cure-all tool for development, is a very powerful tool for poverty reduction in the developing world. We’ve all heard the effect it has on poverty as portrayed in numerous academic studies and from sources like Muhammad Yunus. Because of my infatuation with microfinance I started wondering what other impact microfinance has had on development issues such as inequality. After a quick search on UC Berkeley’s academic journal search tool I only found one (one?!!) article which even mentioned inequality. This was evidence to me that microfinance is still in its infancy as an academic subject.
Prior to becoming a Kiva Fellow I decided that I wanted to go back to graduate school and study economic development with an emphasis in microfinance, if at all possible. Because I discovered the lack of scholarly attention towards microfinance and its impact towards other development issues I decided that I wanted to study what impact microfinance has on all aspects to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals besides just poverty reduction.
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that 192 United Nations member states have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. While it is very debatable that the goals can be achieved by that date, they are nonetheless goals worth fighting towards for a long time to come. The eight goals (which have more specifics than shown below) are as follows:
1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2) Achieve universal primary education. 3) Promote gender equality and empower women. 4) Reduce child mortality. 5) Improve maternal health. 6) Combat HIV/Aids, malaria, and other diseases. 7) Ensure environmental sustainability. 8) Develop a global partnership for development.
My question for these goals is simple: does microfinance have a significant impact on any of these goals besides poverty reduction? My theory, as of now, is that yes it does impact at least five, maybe even seven of these goals; however I need to run statistical models to test the significance. In short I believe that since most clients are women, goal 3 has a major impact and since a goal of microfinance is increasing credit to hopefully increase family income, the other goals will be affected as well. Think about it like this: extra money means maybe another child will get to continue their education, or there is now money available to afford the medicines required to fight a child’s malaria bout to keep them alive past the age of five (goals 4 and 6), etc., etc…
As an anecdotal case, here in Vietnam with my MFI SEDA, I know that the vast majority of borrowers are female. According to the women I have interviewed, the majority have seen an increase in their standard of living and income (whether this is due to a real increase in income or income simply mirroring inflation is another topic that needs to be studied) and many who still have school age children use their extra income to pay for their kids tuition fees and hope that their children will be able to go to university and further increase their standards of living, especially for eldest sons (who take care of the parents when they get older!). Furthermore, many of the women now have extra income to also buy medicines if their children become sick. Just from my interactions with the borrowers here, I see a potential impact going beyond just poverty reduction…I see Millennium Goals 1-6 being affected. Thus there is reason for further study into this impact!
To learn more about the Millennium Development Goals, please check out the MDG Wikipedia page. If you’re interested in lending to SEDA borrowers to help them have an impact on the Millennium Development Goals, please check out SEDA’s fundraising page!
Giving CREDIT where it’s due
CREDIT Microfinance Institution, Kiva’s oldest partner in Southeast Asia, and 7th oldest in its portfolio of partners celebrated its third year on Kiva May 3rd, 2009. As one of Kiva’s oldest partners, they have received over $3.1m in loans, making it the most invested MFI in Kiva’s portfolio of MFIs. Through the generosity of over 48,500 Kiva lenders, over 4150 of CREDIT’s clients have received loans ranging from $100 to $1200 helping them run businesses, fix homes, educate their children, supply daily needs, and ultimately enabling them to build a higher standard of living for themselves and their families.
To celebrate CREDIT’s third year, I have put together a retrospective video of my time with them on their work in the office and in the field.
Thank you to the tens of thousands of Kiva lenders for investing in CREDIT MFI’s clients and supporting CREDIT MFI over the years. The journey has just begun…
To invest in current Kiva CREDIT-MFI borrowers in need of loans, please click this link
Kiva Fundraising loans at Credit MFI
To learn more about CREDIT MFI please visit their website CREDIT Microfinance Institution
*Teresa Dunbar was a Kiva Fellow with CREDIT MFI from August 2008 – February 2009. During her time there she became increasingly interested in the daily struggles of Cambodia’s peoples. Her interests include; land rights, livelihood and environmental protection, government and business transparency, and the rule of law, and how each affects the viability of microfinance.
Luz y Esperanza (Light and Hope)
As a Kiva Fellow, one of my main duties is to bring you stories about entrepreneurs using microcredit to improve their lives. A few weeks ago, I met a remarkable entrepreneur called Neni.
Continue Reading 17 May 2009 at 07:02 Diana Rodriguez-Wong 4 comments
An Innovative & Effective Microfinance Model
Intro to EDESA and their network of Empresas de Crédito Comunal
Kiva’s field partner in Costa Rica, EDESA, provides credit services to a network of “Empresas de Crédito Comunal” (Community Credit Enterprises), or ECCs, established by FINCA Costa Rica. The ECCs are small, grassroots microfinance organizations formed by rural community members. The objective of each ECC is to provide financial services to individuals within the community for the development of economic activities that allow them to move out of poverty. FINCA Costa Rica works to establish ECCs to serve as the financial engines of the neediest communities across the country. To form the ECCs, FINCA provides comprehensive training to rural community members that includes financial and business elements and culminates in the formal establishment of the ECC as a legal autonomous business.
The capital of each ECC is generated by the investment of its members through the sale and purchase of shares in the organization. These purchases provide the loan capital that the ECCs then use to issue loans to their members and to invest in other community development projects. As shareholders, individuals in the community become owners of the ECC, earning dividends on the shares when the business is profitable and fully determining the rules, policies, and projects of the organization. Not only do ECCs provide financial benefits, but many of them also work with other organizations in sectors such as health, education, and sports and often provide other programs such as investment education for children and youth. While each ECC governs its own policies, the average price for a share across the network of ECCs is 2,000 Costa Rica Colones (approximately US$3.50) so becoming a partial owner of the business is fairly accessible, even in the poorest of communities.
Over the years, as the ECCs grew and their members’ businesses expanded, some members began requesting loans that exceeded the ECCs’ lending capacity. The ECCs started looking for other sources of financing. EDESA was established by FINCA Costa Rica, the ECCs and some individual investors in February of 2005 in response to the ECCs’ growing need for external financing. EDESA serves as the ECCs’ national financing institution, with the mission of bringing credit services to the ECCs. EDESA is a firm operated just like an ECC, but on a national level. The ECCs are the shareholders and receive profits (dividends) if positive financial results are achieved.
This model of community members becoming partial owners of the ECCs and the ECCs being partial owners of EDESA has proven remarkably effective. Not only does the sale and purchase of shares at the grassroots level facilitate the capital needed to run these organizations, but the fact that the borrowers are receiving loans from an enterprise they partially own creates an additional vested interest in paying back the loans and ensuring future success of the organizations. As evidence of how effective this strategy is, EDESA maintained a zero percent (0%) delinquency rate in its first four years of lending! In addition to being effective in terms of loan repayment, this model is also extremely empowering to the individuals and the communities investing in the ECCs and EDESA. By being participants and owners of these organizations, the beneficiaries also educate themselves on financial and business issues and shape how the businesses grow and what they do within their own communities.
offices of one of the oldest and most developed ECCs, El Sauce
ECC El Sauce sign
ECC El Sauce even has internet and bike rental services
To lend to EDESA’s borrowers, please click here.
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Megan Tatman Montgomery is in her fourth and final placement as a Kiva Fellow. Prior to EDESA, she served at Friendship Bridge and FAPE in Guatemala and ADEPHCA in Nicaragua. Please feel free to contact her at megan.montgomery@fellows.kiva.org with any questions, comments, or requests for future blog posts.
A 25 pound sack of sugar.
Despite entrepreneurial skills, and dedicated work ethic many entrepreneurs are a single business mistake, illness, or natural disaster away from starting at square one.
Continue Reading 15 May 2009 at 10:21 ashleyolivia 3 comments
A Handsome Gentleman Came Calling
What do you get when you cross a woman named Matilde Tamon and an organization like Ahon Sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI)? A love song.
Matilde, who is a spry 75 years of age, has been a member of ASHI for 13 years. She loves to sing, and also loves what ASHI has done for her and the women in her community. Faced with this fortunate predicament, she did what any Filipino would do: she sang about it.
Some years ago Matilde composed a song of gratitude for ASHI, one which she usually delivers a capella. ASHI, a Grameen-style, non-profit microcredit institution that provides financial and social services to its more than 22,000 Filipina members, has been operating in Antique Province, where Matilde lives, since 1996.
Matilde has charmed generations of ASHI personnel and members with her song and wit. Legend has it that she sings her song to any new visitors from ASHI when she first meets them, and legend didn’t disappoint on the day I met Matilde.
In late April, I visited her center hall in Malandog Barangay, Hamtic, along with members of ASHI’s board of trustees and other ASHI personnel. After everyone had eaten a particularly delicious meal prepared by ASHI members, Matilde stepped up and sang us her song.
Matilde sings in Kinaray-a, the language spoken by most people in Antique Province. The video is subtitled in English, thanks to ASHI staff from Antique who doubled as interpreters. Enjoy!
Some unfamiliar terms you may encounter in the video:
Field credit officers: ASHI development officers — personnel that visit ASHI members in the field.
Group: ASHI members form groups of five to build solidarity, and to guarantee each other’s loans.
Center: A number of groups — usually six — form a center. A centers is a small, freestanding structure built and maintained by the women who form its member groups. All business is transacted in weekly meetings at the center.
Sir Jesse: The first field credit officer assigned to Matilde’s center; Jesse is now in charge of Grameen operations for ASHI, and is based in Manila. Jesse is the handsome gentleman in Matilde’s song.
Ma’am Hermie: The ASHI first regional manager for Antique Province, who oversaw operations at the time Jesse was a field credit officer.
John Briggs is a Kiva Fellow serving with Ahon Sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) in the Philippines. This is his second of three placements. Before his post at ASHI, John worked with Maxima Mikroheranvatho in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. John’s third placement as a Kiva Fellow will be with the Kenya Agency for the Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET), starting in June. If you haven’t already, consider becoming a Kiva Fellow, too!
A belated Women’s Day Video from Cameroon!
Fellow fellow Ashley and I had the honor of celebrating International Women’s Day with GHAPE borrowers on Sunday, March 8th, 2009. It was quite the event: women dressed in kabas, which are the traditional Cameroonian dresses with various patterns and colors, and marched down the main street in Bamenda. Women and men showed up in masses to the parade and many continued the party by drinking and eating with friends.
On a personal note, Women’s Day was one of my favorite memories of Cameroon. There were tons of women out at the restaurants and bars enjoying themselves with friends and family, And, every time a group of women passed another group, they yelled, “HAPPY WOMEN”S DAY!” As you can see this video comes delayed due to the lack of high speed internet, but hope you all enjoy it!
The Kiva-TLM Calendar
On my previous blog post, 77 is never too old to start a business, Jan commented that she would like to see the result of our TLM Kiva T-shirt Bonanza which took place last week (she heard about it by following TLM on Twitter, to do the same go here).
Fortunately, this also gave me the perfect excuse to express my thanks to Jan and John for their unwavering support of Kiva and the Fellows programme. For those of you who don’t know of them, Jan and John are professional grandparents from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. In between their time grandparenting, lending on Kiva, chatting on Kiva Friends.org and driving the school bus (John), they find time to read and comment on almost every blog written by the Kiva Fellows. Their comments are consistently supportive, positive, and uplifting, and I’m sure have provided much-welcomed comfort for many blogging Fellows.
Jan & John (photo from their Kiva lender page)
Thank you Jan and John! I know I’ve really appreciated your kind comments. This thanks is also directed at the many other regular readers and commenters, and Kiva Friends who keep the blog going. Unilove that means you! J&J, I hope you don’t mind me writing about you and posting your picture, Kiva have trained me so well I feel like I should be getting releases signed everywhere I go.
This is sadly my last day as a Kiva Fellow and my last day with TLM. They’ve just showered me with gifts and taken me out for a slap-up lunch. I’ve sold my helmet and various other bits and bobs I accumulated along the way. Everyone has been incredibly friendly and welcoming here, they really really have. Don’t forget to check out the new TLM website – their first proper one in 12 years of operation, I know it’s basic but it’s the first proper website I’ve made too! And watch out for more TLM loans and video journals coming soon, plus a very special video project which will hopefully be happening in June (unfortunately I won’t be here).
And without further ado, I present the TLM-Kiva Calendar… coming soon to a store near you… maybe
January: TLM actually stands for Tanned Lending Machines. (l-to-r: Lambert, Ellen, Ida, Lenny, Shanty, and Herto)
April: The look this spring - Ice white Kiva t-shirts with customized limited edition TLM decoration
June: The Kiva Team (left to right: Kieran, Vience, Shanty, and Roni)
November: We never turn our back on a client (except to show them our Kiva t-shirts)
Thanks to Darren at Kiva for providing the funds for t-shirts. They will be worn many times I promise (looking around the office as I write this I can see a few in full effect).
Is Kiva respecting the privacy of its borrowers?
When any of us wants to borrow money from the bank, whether it is for a new car or a home, or even to start a business, we expect complete confidentiality from our bank. It’s a private matter between us and the bank staff.
Yet, when Kiva borrowers need a loan, we expect them to agree to have their information posted on the internet for all to see, along with a picture and sometimes even a video. Are we unnecessarily invading their privacy?
Clearly borrowers are not being forced. They have a choice. Indeed, I am told by the loan officers here at Ameen that some people often do object to the picture in particular and choose not to take a Kiva loan at all. They are then offered another loan product Ameen provides not funded through Kiva.
However, if Kiva provides people with an opportunity where there would not otherwise be one, we realize that we are urging borrowers to, in a sense, give up their privacy for a loan. Is it fair to put them in that situation?
Before I arrived at my host MFI and began to meet borrowers, I had not thought about the privacy of borrowers. I only thought that the information being provided was necessary to facilitate the connecting between lenders and borrowers and to make Kiva possible. The amazing power of the Kiva concept and the opportunity it was providing borrowers in poor communities was all I saw.
Kiva already does a lot to protect a borrower’s privacy, like giving MFIs the option of hiding a borrower’s last name, or not listing the actual address of their business. These are definitely great features. But I think we should be able to do more to protect their privacy. Here are some of the things I find disturbing at present:
- Borrowers can be searched on Google by anyone.
- Borrowers pictures are online for anyone to see along with their first names.
- Personal information is listed, such as marital status and number of children and their business activity, making it possible for people to identify them with a little effort.
Another related issue I find disturbing is that borrowers are being labeled as poor when they do not necessarily see themselves as such. Poverty means different things in different places. A person asking for a loan from a partner MFI for their economic activity works hard and provides for his or her family and may not see themselves as poor.
I must say that the team in charge of the Kiva Fellows Program and the training we went through as fellows, was careful to highlight the need to avoid “cultural imperialism” in implementing Kiva. I feel that the more concern for the privacy of borrowers falls within this.
Some suggestions for increasing privacy protection for borrowers could be:
- Restrict access to the full information on borrowers to Kiva registered users or even active lenders on Kiva.
- Provide borrowers some optionality to provide as much information as they feel comfortable providing.
I think that as Kiva grows and matures, the privacy of Kiva borrowers should be looked at more closely to see how we can better balance the interests of lenders and those of the borrowers. As users on the internet we are always reminded of the importance of protecting our privacy. Why shouldn’t Kiva borrowers also have the same level of protection? This should be especially important given that the bulk of these borrowers have no access to the internet.
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Nemr is a KF7 Kiva Fellow spending 12 weeks at Ameen. You can also check out his personal blog here. Check out some of Ameen’s borrowers and make a loan today by clicking here.
Goodbye Kiva!
Last week was my last week as a Kiva Fellow. As I sat in the cold air of the bar Emprender took me to celebrate the end of my time with their offices and the national Dia del Trabajador (or workers day), I realized how far I have come. And how hard it would be to sum up the personal aspect of being a Kiva Fellow. And equally hard to sum up what microfinance looks like to me.
Here is an effort to show what I mean. Take a look at an album I made of my favorite entrepreneur photos from my placement in Honduras and in Bolivia.
I had just spent a solid hour learning the lilted, stomping, righteous traditional dance steps from Emprender’s regional directors and office managers. I was casually discussing (in imperfect but newly fully functional Spanish) the future of Evo’s MAS party. It was at this moment, during a pause in the live band’s flute playing and guitar strumming that I realized I have learned this city from the inside out. That is, I can tell you where the used clothes come from and how much a cow stomach has been marked up by the seller (35%). Microfinance can be a problem and I worry about over indebtedness, and irresponsibly lending to people who can’t repay. I worry that perhaps we still aren’t reaching the poorest of the poor, and perhaps there is a better way to relieve poverty. Is lending just a construct of “The West” (whatever that is) that shouldn’t be exported to “The Rest” (whatever that is)? I still don’t know.
Looking back on my 6 months as a Kiva Fellow, the sum total is positive. Enthusiastic, creative loan officers and entrepreneurs. Shiny new ideas and optimism. Smiles, laughs and hope. Microfinance doesn’t just change the material position of a family, but their self-image. This idea of self-image bleeds into the national consciousness. It changes women, and it inspires a community.
Flora bakes bread and now sells directly to a school with a monthly contract. Her loan allowed her to commit to a certain amount of product resulting in this contract that evens out her income and lends some predictability to a life wrought with uncertainty. She told me to pass along specific thanks to Kiva lenders.
Flora with her oven
Ramiro was robbed and lost the material he needed to run his tire replacing business. His Kiva loan puts him back on his feet. He spent the whole interview talking about the future. A bigger store. Transmission replacement. Employing his brothers.
Ramiro
Story after story like these two have warmed my heart, and made me believe.
Personally, I learned that I can’t stop my feet from itching, and will probably spend the rest of my life in a constant state of building a home and then taking it down again- and that I like that as much as I hate it.
Morning in La Paz- Sierra cleaning house
I’ll never find a solution to poverty that fits in every way, and I’ll always have my doubts. Still, the fight for equality moves me, connects me, and I’ll never stop trying, thinking, working and exploring. Thank you Kiva for this opportunity.
**Sierra Visher is a Kiva Fellow (KF6) posted in Honduras with Prisma and Bolivia with Emprender. She is heading to Pisco, Peru to volunteer with MAD Volunteers. After that- the open road. You can follow her journey on her personal blog. **
Trainings to save my skirts (and Grace’s sanity)
At the beginning of April, Grace and I began an effort to decentralize the Kiva process at Pearl. This is the formal way of saying that we planned to visit the branches and carry out a training program that would make the Kiva process such that we would no longer be required to rip our skirts, miss spending time with our families and friends and spend 4-8 hours per day bumping along the roads of Uganda in taxis (the minibuses that Grace wrote about in a previous post).
One of places we visited to train!
Before the trainings, most of Pearl’s loans came from three of the branch offices (you can read more about the structure of Pearl on the Partner Page on Kiva’s website): Central, Jinja, and Lugazi.
Central branch is the closest to head office – it takes about 15 minutes to get there on a boda boda. It is in a busy area of Kampala but it serves a huge area around Kampala. Although getting to the office is quick, getting to where the loan is being disbursed can take hours.
Lugazi is about an hour east of Kampala by taxi (that is most days, some days it is more like two hours). Lugazi is a small town but the clients that Pearl serves in that area are often nestled in the countryside around that area.
A Group in the Lugazi Office
Jinja is across the Nile about 2 hours east of Kampala. It used to the in the industrial center of Uganda but now it is a sleepy beautiful area with many far-flung clients.
There have also been occasional loans from 3 additional offices located in Mukono, Mubende, and Mityana. The Mukono field office is in a medium sized town 45 minutes east of Kampala. The loans in the Mukono portfolio are often made to people in the surrounding countryside.
Visiting a borrower in Mukono
The offices in Mubende and Mityana (Mityana is the place I decided the interest rate Pearl charged was reasonable) are the only offices that we post loans from that are west of Kampala. Mubende is a branch office about 2.5 hours northwest of Kampala and Mityana is the field office associated with Mubende and it is about 1.5 hours northwest of Kampala.
Up until this past month, if Grace, the Kiva Coordinator, wanted to post a loan on Kiva’s website she would have to wait to hear about a loan. After hearing about a loan she would make a plan to travel to that site to do an interview and take the photo necessary to post the loan on Kiva’s website.
To be successful, she has to make it in time for the loan disbursement, meaning the moment at which the client or clients actually receive the money. This is because as soon as the clients receive the money they want to get back to work. They will not hang around the office waiting for someone from head office to come interview them.
Making it in time is rarely the problem – more often delays come waiting till the loan is ready to be disbursed. The money from head office needs to be transferred into the correct bank accounts in order for the loan to actually be disbursed. Unfortunately, the central banks often delay the transfer to the branch banks meaning that clients, and Grace, wait around all day for a disbursement that never takes place.
If this is an individual loan, sometimes it is still possible to capture the loan for posting on Kiva’s website, we just have to change the expected disbursement date, but if it is a group loan we will just have to return another day. Many clients wait to hear that the money has reached the disbursement site before coming to collect their portion. Because of this, there will be four or five people in the office waiting to see if the money really comes in. As soon as word goes out that the money is not coming at all the clients present leave and no one else ever comes. If all the members of the group are not present to be photographed we cannot post the loan on the website.
Needless to say, these processes create a bit of frustration for Grace and me.
Thus the trainings. Some wonderful person donated cameras to Kiva. Kiva sent them on to Pearl. Suddenly, we had the resources to empower the branches to capture the loans on their own. We could train 6 branches. We decided that in addition to training branches that we had been posting from like Central, Lugazi, and Mubende, we would train Kayunga, Bushenyi, and Ibanda. Kayunga is about 1.5 hours outside of Kampala and we have posted loans from them a few times.
The hillside in Ibanda
Bushenyi and Ibanda are both about 6 hours west of Kampala and have never before been seen on the Kiva website. These two places are completely different than any part of Uganda I have ever seen. They are unbelievably green, the farms people own are enormous, and the milk is plentiful and so fresh. I made a little slide show that you can view.
The trainings are now complete. We have already received what we are calling loan packages (meaning all the forms necessary to post a loan on Kiva’s website) from many of the trained offices and the staff at the branches are very excited about Kiva. Many of the credit officers will be watching eagerly for comments on their posted loans and reading all the information they can about the people who loan to their clients.
I thrilled about the improvement to the experience you all will be able to have making loans to Pearl clients. I am also thrilled that Grace will be able to work more regular hours allowing her to spend more time with her family (she has two young kids!). And selfishly, I am excited that now I will only need to spend hours of hair raising travel on various forms of public transportation risking my neck (and my skirts) a few times a week rather than every day.
A photo of me at one of the farms in Ibanda!
~ Stephanie Koczela is in her eleventh week of her posting as a Kiva Fellow at Pearl Microfinance in Uganda. Join the lending team for Pearl for more updates on the borrowers at Pearl and the organization itself! ~
Social Gardening a.k.a. 77 is never too old to start a business.
by Kieran Ball, KF6 & 7
“Poor people are like bonsai trees”, analogises Professor Mohammad Yunus, “Even choosing the best seed of the tallest tree, if you plant it in a small flower pot it cannot grow big. Society is the flower pot, the system we have built that keeps poor people from growing. The seed of the person is as good as the tallest tree, but we must change the system to let each person grow to their potential.”
Whilst Professor Yunus failed to mention that bonsai trees look totally hip on most coffee tables, this is still my all time favourite microfinance analogy.
I was reminded of it today, when I met a good seed.
Mr Zakarias Rassi is a seventy-seven year old Kiva entrepreneur from Baun village, West Timor. He is the group leader of the Cemara C group. I was visiting to do a journal on this group’s progress with their cattle fattening loan, and this was my second meeting with Zakarias. This time, while we were waiting for someone to find his log book, myself and Shanty, the Kiva coordinator, had a nice chat with this talkative and highly entertaining gentleman.
Zakarias Rassi sitting on his doorstep with the piglet that follows him everywhere
Zakarias stands a modest five-and-a-bit feet above the ground he has spent most of his life earning a living from. His mouth is constantly bright red from chewing on betelnuts (I tried one this week, the most bitter thing I’ve ever tasted) and his sun-beaten leathery brown skin does not do justice to his still clearly nimble and strong body.
Interesting fact number one: Zakarias has twelve children.
We started out with regular journal questions – how is the cow doing, is it getting fat, has it improved your life. He told us that he is a farmer by trade, but that this is his fourth cattle loan from TLM because it is a good way of supplementing his income. With the profit from selling his cows he has been able to buy a pig, send his remaining dependent children to school, and buy new clothes and shoes (no sign of these).
He says that he is able to get loans from TLM because they know he is diligent and intelligent. Of that I have no doubt. After seventy-seven years in a country where life expectancy for men is sixty-six, and still going strong, I guessed old Zakarias had more tricks up his sleeve than just a couple of cattle loans. I asked what they were.
Interesting fact number two: Zakarias has three houses and four motorbikes.
Zakarias told us that he had been a farmer in the same village since he was very young, but that on the side he has had several other business ventures to keep him going. In 1976, when he was in his forties, he started playing the stock market. The livestock market that is! (Sorry Kristy for stealing this excellent pun). He was buying and selling cows and pigs and abiding by the golden rule of trading: buy thin and sell fat.
Zakarias with his latest investment
By saving his profits he managed to purchase three houses in his village. He also bought four motorcycles which he lends to his sons who are motor-taxi drivers. I asked if he charges them for the use of the bikes. With a glint in his eye he told us that all revenues are returned to him, and if his sons need to buy anything for themselves, he decides whether to give them the money for it.
Before this he sold rice, vegetables, and fruit. With the proceeds of his current cattle loan, he plans to set up a kiosk and diversify his skill set further. It’s never to late to start something new.
Interesting fact number three: At the tender age of seventy, Zakarias married his second wife, aged seventeen.
If Zakarias lived in the UK he would probably be a wheeler dealer named Del Boy, a true rags-to-riches tale of hard work and shrewd decisions. But in a village in West Timor, owning three small wooden houses doesn’t equate to holidays in Florida and golf course membership. In fact, Zakarias and his wife still work every day in the fields tending to their crops and livestock, and his house is a tiny dark shack with none of the creature comforts you’d associate with a triple home owner.
Perhaps if Zakarias had lived on the other side of the small mountain range, in Kupang city, he would have several successful businesses and bigger, more luxurious houses by now. Perhaps if he had grown up in the USA, he’d be spending his later years relaxing on his yacht in the Bahamas rather than working in a field.
To expand on Yunus’ analogy, microfinance cannot change where your seed is planted. But it can give you a bigger pot to grow in. And get rid of some of those little ties that stop your branches from sprouting. Kiva and Kiva lenders are helping to make the pots bigger and better, and removing the ties – social gardeners working towards a larger global forest of entrepreneurs.
I now see why Professor Yunus did not expand on his analogy.
Zakarias is an example of how microfinance can reach individuals who really value the opportunity, but also a reminder not to expect miracles. Despite four consecutive loans, a good level of intelligence and diligence – even if he does say so himself – and a lifetime of hard work and saving, Zakarias still works long days in the field and lives in a wooden hut. Mind you, he has supported twelve children.
The real benefits will probably come generations down the line when his children who were able to go to school because of his cattle loans can get better jobs and send their children to university. I wonder if they will realise that it was all down to Great-Grandad Zakarias, the savvy entrepreneur and hard-working farmer from Baun village.
Zakarias is a client of TLM, one of Kiva’s newest field partners in West Timor, Indonesia. To view all TLM clients that are currently fundraising, go here.
68 is never too old to learn to read.
One Dominican farmer I met had even unknowingly signed over the title of his land because he was unable to read the document he was signing.
Continue Reading 2 May 2009 at 13:52 ashleyolivia 5 comments
GHAPE: Bamenda, Belo and MoMo
GHAPE – Grounded and Holistic Approach for People’s Empowerment, has three branches in Cameroon. Each branch is located in the North West Region: the capital city, Bamenda, houses GHAPE headquarters. Traveling from branch to branch, center to center, one can see the differences in landscape in Cameroon. Bamenda, a bustling city with lots of commerce is the central location for GHAPE. In Momo and Belo, the farmers reign in their small-town atmospheres.
Momo is a small, small town, equipped with a motor park for those who look to sell their produce outside the city. Home to six GHAPE centers, Momo is thriving with hardworking farmers.
In Belo, there is an honest tranquility amidst the mountaintops that is unmistakable. There is any wonder how work gets done in such a serene environment. The central market, a small section of the Cameroon “highway” houses many GHAPE borrowers. In Belo, there are ten centers that stretch out to half an hour’s
drive.
Here is a digital look at towns GHAPE lives in. Enjoy!
Bamenda:
To MoMo:
MoMo:
Car Park in MoMo.
Belo:
GHAPE in Belo:
GHAPE office in Belo
Adios ADEPHCA, Hola EDESA
I’ve just arrived at my fourth and final placement as a Kiva Fellow. Less than two weeks ago I was wrapping up work with ADEPHCA in Nicaragua and, following a week of whirlwind travel through southwestern Nicaragua, I arrived to start my first week with EDESA in Costa Rica. Based on initial impressions, ADEPHCA and EDESA have very little in common other than the fact they are both identified by somewhat confusing acronyms and are both quite small organizations in the world of microfinance. But that is where the similarities end. ADEPHCA is based out of Bluefields, Nicaragua: a town of less than 50,000 where the tallest building in town is the 3-story discotheque and many people haven’t even heard of Diet Coke. EDESA is based out of San Jose, Costa Rica, a bustling metropolis of over 1.5 million people that feels more like the United States than any other place I’ve ever been in Latin America. ADEPHCA’s clients live in tin and clapboard houses that may or may not have a real floor. The EDESA clients I’ve seen so far live in cement houses and may even have tile covering the concrete floors.
The working poor in Bluefields have very few options in terms of starting up microenterprises. Accordingly, nearly all of ADEPHCA’s loans are invested in daily consumption items such as rice, beans, and soap for little stores or in the purchase of clothing for resale. That’s it. The kinds of businesses EDESA’s clients are investing in run the gamut from agriculture and livestock, to fishing and restaurants, to sewing, bakeries, traditional handicrafts and more. One community they work with used to be dominated by coffee cultivation. Several years back coffee prices dropped dramatically, and many in the community used microloans to invest in other agricultural endeavors, a bakery, a tailor shop, etc.
While I’ve only been in Costa Rica for a week, my initial visits into the field (the rural areas where microfinance is most utilized) have shown that the levels of poverty and challenges to development are markedly less severe than in Nicaragua. To some extent, this is to be expected. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, while Costa Rica is among the most developed countries in all of Latin America. Costa Ricans take great pride in the fact that their country has not been torn apart by civil war and government corruption like much of the rest of Central America. While other countries were embroiled in internal conflict, Costa Rica was able to focus on things like infrastructure and education. In addition to investments such as this, Costa Rica is blessed with fertile lands conducive to agricultural production of all kinds and incredible biodiversity that attracts tourists from all over the world. They are so far ahead of Nicaragua in almost every way that it’s hard to believe that these tiny Central American countries share a border.
As a longer-term Kiva Fellow, it has been extremely valuable to see microfinance in action in a variety of regions and contexts. The thing I am most excited about regarding my time in Costa Rica is getting a feel for how levels of poverty here really compare with elsewhere I’ve been in Latin America. Are the poorest of the poor in Costa Rica still way ahead of Nicaragua’s poor? Or is there still extreme poverty in some parts of the country? Because Nicaragua and Costa Rica share a border, and because Costa Rica has so many more work opportunities than Nicaragua, nearly one million Nicaraguans have immigrated to Costa Rica. One million Nicaraguans in a country with just over four million Costa Ricans. It’s my understanding that Nicaraguans actually comprise much of the poorest of the poor in Costa Rica. But is their quality of life in Costa Rica still better than their life in Nicaragua? I look forward to seeing just how well Costa Rica has done in terms of development and poverty alleviation. In such a small country, have all corners benefited from the growth and prosperity I see in San Jose and nearby rural communities? Or have some still been left way behind? Hopefully I’ll be able to provide some answers in the coming months.
An EDESA borrower's chive fields in beautiful Costa Rica
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Megan Tatman Montgomery is in her fourth and final placement as a Kiva Fellow. Prior to EDESA, she served at Friendship Bridge and FAPE in Guatemala and ADEPHCA in Nicaragua. Please feel free to contact her at megan.montgomery@fellows.kiva.org with any questions, comments, or requests for future blog posts.
