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”.
6 comments 29 May 2009
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 3 comments 29 May 2009
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.
6 comments 28 May 2009
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.
4 comments 28 May 2009
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
1 comment 26 May 2009
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.
11 comments 26 May 2009
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.
2 comments 26 May 2009
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!
6 comments 22 May 2009
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!
19 comments 22 May 2009
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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7 comments 21 May 2009
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