Archive for June, 2009
Kiva Fellows’ Blog Quarter 2 in Review
By Kiva Fellows Program Team
Kiva’s launch in the United States on June 10th generated a huge amount of media attention for Kiva, and an equally-large number of hits for the Kiva Fellows Blog. Kudos goes to John Briggs KF8, currently on his second Kiva placement with KADET in Kenya, for his #1 in Q2 post in response to the “Pissed Off Kiva Lenders” lending team with 1,712 views to date.
The top 5 blogs in Q2 were:
1. Pissed Off Kiva Lenders, John Briggs KF8, Kenya
2. A Rose From Florence, Stephanie Koczela KF7, Uganda
3. M-Banking!, Brett Dobbs KF7, Kenya
4. I Am Living In Kisumu, Kenya, Milena Arciszewski KF7, Kenya
5. Welcome, Kiva, to West Timor!, Kieran Ball KF7, Indonesia
Quarter 2 has been a time of change for Kiva, both on a macro level, as people in Kenya and Cambodia make their first Kiva loans to entrepreneurs in northern California and New York City, and a micro level, as Kiva Fellows upload short videos to this very blog detailing the daily activities of borrowers and loan officers alike.
Emily Sweeney KF7, Peru, found the time to travel to Lake Titicaca, where she later found out that many of the artisans selling their crafts on the floating islands were borrowers of her MFI, Manuela Ramos. She was particularly struck by the way microfinance had merged with the unique island culture of Los Uros. Katie Davis KF7, Cambodia, got a crash course in rice accounting from staff at her MFI in Cambodia, vastly different from the sophisticated financial and analytic tools she used at her job in the United States, but which proved to be incredibly effective. Several new KF8 fellows have undergone changes since starting their placements in late May and June, including Alia Rafeh KF8, Lebanon, who traveled 7,000 miles to begin her placement with Al Majmoua, Cissy DeLuca KF8, Indonesia, who made the official change from Kiva intern to Kiva Fellow this past Sunday as she departed for her fellowship with TLM via Taipei and Tamara Sanderson KF8, Mongolia, whose role at Kiva changed from volunteer to fellow as she started her placement with XacBank, noting the important role connection plays in empowering a relatively new Kiva MFI.
Videos you should be sure to check out:
Zev travels home from work in Indonesia
Hanh attempts to cross Hanoi’s bustling/frenetic (depending on your point of view) streets shortly after arriving in Vietnam
Athan ate a traditional Umu meal in Samoa
Ashley King-Bischof posted a video of thank yous from borrowers in Cameroon
If you’re interested in learning more about the Kiva Fellows Program or other opportunities to get involved with Kiva, be sure to check out the Do More section on the Kiva website.
Micro-Universal Health Care
By Cynthia McMurry, KF8 Ecuador
Time and cost are enormous disincentives for the working poor when it comes to getting medical treatment. Time spent visiting the doctor is time you’re not at work generating income, and money spent on these visits is money that could otherwise be spent on your children’s education or reinvested in your business. These disincentives are strong enough that relatively minor, treatable ailments often go untreated and eventually develop into much more complicated, serious conditions that require more intensive treatments and can even be incapacitating.
To mitigate this problem, medical care must be made cheaper and more convenient, and this is exactly what’s being done at the Cuenca branch office of Fundación Espoir. The office has an on-site doctor’s office. Each client pays $4.50 per 6-month loan cycle, for which she is entitled to unlimited free doctor’s visits for herself, her husband and her children. Women can get Pap tests, pre- and post-natal care and birth control counseling, in addition to a wide variety of treatments for common ailments. The clinic, which is always staffed by one of two doctors, serves 250-280 women and their family members each month. Dr. Maria Eulalia Robles says that most clients, whether women, men or children, come in for three reasons: dermatological problems, respiratory ailments, and diarrhea. Treatment is key, especially for children: left untreated, respiratory ailments and diarrheal diseases are responsible for almost 40% of mortality in Ecuadorian children ages 1-4 (as of 1999).
As the Microfinance Mundo Turns: The Best Nicaraguan Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Doña Cony’s ice cream.
CCT’s First Kiva Loan
Last Tuesday was the first day of the Kiva Partnership with CCT, and my first day as a Kiva Fellow. The highlight of the day was posting CCT’s first borrower profiles on Kiva.org. Laughter filled the room as CCT workers took turns writing their first profiles. For CCT to move to the “Active” stage as soon as possible, and for entrepreneurs in the Philippines to get much-needed loans quickly, there’s no time to waste.
Continue Reading 28 June 2009 at 20:45 Merrick Brown 8 comments
Kiva Novela — “As the Microfinance Mundo Turns ” Episodio 2: Who is Doña Cony?
“As the Microfinance Mundo Turns” — Episode 2 — Purveyor of Nicaragua´s Best Ice Cream
What if microfinance really does work?
By Suzy Marinkovich, KF8 Peru
As I sat this morning, drowning in over 50 borrower interviews I’d done that need to be typed and uploaded, I felt overwhelmed with bureaucracy. Our Kiva Coordinator then walked in to let me know we had five more community bank meetings – FIVE – meaning I had a ton more interviews to do. For a moment, I actually thought about turning her down so I could catch up on typing up the previous ones. Regardless, I picked up my scrappy notebook and pen and ran downstairs to meet with the first group of women.
As I interviewed, I laughed with them, listened closely to them, hugged them, told them I admired them, and made sure to hang on to every word. I was beside myself that I almost turned them down to do paperwork. I’d gotten so used to the importance of paperwork at my last job in the US, it had actually pained me to ignore it.
At lunch I walked (more like trekked) to my apartment and took a seat on my fluorescent green plastic chair, took a long stare at the wall and began to think about the phrase “ignorance is bliss.”
Let’s pretend that its converse is “education is cynicism.”
Criticism abounds for Kiva, and more noticeably, for microfinance in general. In fact, criticism pervades international development. When one thing goes wrong, one borrower gets deeper into poverty, suddenly microfinance is moot. If 99% of stories we hear are positive, we play extra close attention to that flaw. And suddenly, every attempt at tackling poverty is debunked or worse yet, accused of worsening the situation.
This is an enormous problem with the way we look at poverty.
We sit comfortably at cafes sipping lovely lattes, pondering life.
Myself included, we look at certain international crises and we debate over what the solution may be – then we conclude there is no solution. “Man… that’s a crappy situation. Let’s talk about something else now. So… the Chargers are totally going all the way this year..”
Then we move on with our night.
Thomas Pogge says it beautifully.
That we are naturally myopic and conformist enough to be easily reconciled to the hunger abroad may be fortunate for us, who can ‘recognize ourselves’, can lead worthwhile and fulfilling lives without much thought about the origins of our affluence. But it is quite unfortunate for the global poor, whose best hope may be our moral reflection.
Okay, moral reflectors and idea-debating post-graduates… I’m about to drop a bomb.
The Dissemination of Technology, Development and Kiva
By Cameron Morris, KF8 – Mozambique
During Kiva Fellows training we were tasked with putting Kiva’s Mission statement into our own words. This gave us the opportunity to critically think about Kiva’s mission and to highlight aspects of the mission that we thought most important. I placed emphasis on Kiva’s use of technology to meet its goals. Having been in the field, Mozambique , for a little over a week I have been amazed by the creative leveraging of basic technologies by my MFI.
Mozambique is a country that is still recovering from a 15 year civil war, and is tremendously under served by the public sector. Much of the existing public infrastructure in Mozambique pre-dates colonial independence. In the region that my MFI operates (Matutuine, Southern Maputo Province) there are virtually no paved roads and basic “luxuries” such as showers are non-existent. In this climate, private sector technologies are heavily relied upon and creatively used to fill in where the public sector cannot provide. Here are a few examples: (more…)
Behind The Curtain – Getting a New MFI on the Kiva Platform
A Kiva entrepreneur in Kyrgyzstan who has also created a Center of Temporary Stay for Orphaned Children using her own funds and resources. Click to learn more.
By Boris Mordkovich, KF8 – Kyrgyzstan
After doing a Kiva Fellowship in Tajikistan during February and March of this year, I’ve returned to Kiva this summer to do another placement in Kyrgyzstan.
Within the first two weeks at the micro-finance institution, it became very clear that this placement will be quite different from the first one. It’s actually quite amazing how much things can vary from one MFI to the other, from one country to another.
The main difference between the two placements is that the first MFI I was working with in Tajikistan was already on the Kiva platform for over a year when I arrived. They already had an established system in place for collecting data and posting profiles of their borrowers on the website. And while there was some room for improvements here and there, as a whole, it functioned very well. (more…)
What about the men?
An interesting issue was raised this week when I mentioned to a friend that more than two thirds of microfinance clients around the world are women. My friend posed the question: how are men reacting to this?
As a Kiva Fellow and a Kiva Lender, one of the things I value most about microfinance is it’s ability to raise the status of women.
A Kiva borrower, working side by side with her husband in her grocery shop in Nepal
Mobile banking: what’s the price?
This past week I heard from a friend in the US who got the new iPhone. It looks pretty cool – smaller, faster, and even has the long-awaited cut/copy/paste feature. All for just USD $199…
But what if you used your phone to make a living? What if it had nothing to do with apps, downloading music or texting your friends?
(more…)
PAX RWANDA
I am sure that many of you have read of the horrors that occurred here in Rwanda almost exactly 15 years ago, but few of us can actually envision the magnitude of such tragedy and its consequences on a society.
Upon arrival in Rwanda I have noticed many hindrances to development and I have generated a lot of criticism for the country’s economic goals etc. But my first visit to a genocide memorial changed my perspective on the place. Rather, it reminded me of the individuals that make up Rwandan society, and how truly extraordinary it is that they have managed to create a peaceful and functioning Rwanda after their experiences 15 years ago.
At Nyamata, a town about an hour south of Kigali, the capital, I was taken through a Roman Catholic church where 10,000 people were slaughtered and dismembered in the most unthinkable ways. These crimes were personal… each person was slain with deliberation and intent. Many were spectacles, butchered in front of their families and peers, killed on the church alter as the entire crowd was forced to watch. My guide, 23 year old Benoit, was there to see it all. (more…)
Bienvenu a Kinshasa!
Not long after my Kenya Airways flight slalomed into N’djili Airport, I began to hear the noise. Drum beats. Cheering. Flag-waving masses of people. “Wow,” I thought, “what a welcome.” I had heard the Congolese were welcoming, but this is a bit over the top!
A Hero’s Welcome – Note the caravan of fans at the top right!
It turns out the ad-hoc parade wasn’t for me (Bummer!) but for the coach of one of the club football (soccer) teams here in Kinshasa. Nevertheless, the conglomeration of people and noise proved to be an ideal introduction to this pulsating metropolis. With 8 million souls, Kinshasa is considered by many to be the largest french-speaking city in the world. It is the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the third largest country in Africa, bordering almost all major conflict regions on the continent.
Usually, when I tell people I’m heading to the “Congo,” I get the same almost-scripted reaction. Puzzlement, worry, doubt – “why would anyone willingly go to the DRC?” I suppose the Congo has come to be seen as a basket case, a land of war, violence and suffering. What I see, however, and what I hope to convey through this blog over the next two months, is Congo as a land of opportunity, a land of hope.
Let me be clear. Congo has issues. Power outages, crime, rampant corruption, the DRC ranks 181st out 181 countries on the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report. But with tremendous challenge lies tremendous opportunity.
Rich in mineral wealth, and relatively stable since elections in 2006, the DRC seems to have finally turned the corner after centuries of violence and exploitation. This is where you (Kiva Lender) come in. By lending directly to entrepreneurs in the DRC through Kiva you are, in a way, reversing history, connecting with the Congolese on a basis of dignity and mutual respect. So be sure to keep an eye out for DRC loans this summer and beyond, as the MFI I am working with, Hope DRC, plans to ramp-up its Kiva lending!
John Soleanicov is serving as a Kiva Fellow with Hope DRC (KF8).
Close to Home
Total chaos can be beautiful. Horns honk at me from left to right and the vibrations jump from one ear to the other. A river of motorbikes (xe oms) race past my taxi window. There appears to be no traffic lights, no speed limits and few rules. I stop to listen and start to see life—life as it is lived in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Having spent some time in Hanoi as an undergraduate, the bustling sounds of the Old Quarter are familiar and comforting. The streets lined with booming businesses of every sort are images that come to mind when I think about microfinance and entrepreneurship in Vietnam.
As I left Hanoi for Thanh Hoa, where I will be based as a fellow during the next three months, I wondered what entrepreneurship would look like in Vietnam’s second poorest province. During the foggy morning as my train rushed by brilliant shades of green across Vietnam’s lush rice paddies, I could not help but be captivated by the tranquil countryside. It’s raining as I leave the train station and my first sight of Thanh Hoa is a gray, damp and serene scene. (more…)
Language Connection
Bonjour from Benin,
I am approaching the two-week mark of my fellowship in Benin and things are off to a good start! I am working for Alidé, an MFI based in Cotonou, the largest city in Benin. Alidé is a relatively new partner of Kiva and is showing great promise. The Kiva Coordinator at Alidé, my main colleague, is committed to strengthening the partnership and teaching the other staff members how to use Kiva. I have a good feeling that we will work well together.
During these first few weeks, I have definitely noticed the language barrier. I came to Benin with a good, working knowledge of French, but there have been inevitable difficulties. People here in Cotonou speak French, but the accent is unfamiliar and conversations also include many words in Fon, the language native to this region. I often find myself struggling to keep up. Unfamiliar languages are common in almost every fellowship. Even if English is a national language, fellows immerse themselves into cultures that use Swahili, Arabic, Samoan, or Cambodian. There is bound to be frustration for everyone due to communication difficulties.
However, so far, I’ve found that learning a language has an incredible power to foster connections between people. Around the office, I greatly appreciate the patience and grace of Alidé’s staff when I do not completely understand something in French. I’ve seen the hospitality of the Beninese people by their willingness to help me out. Also, whenever I use a word or phrase in Fon, people instantly light up and become eager to teach me more. They appreciate the attempt to understand their language and culture. An instant friendship is born. Using Fon is a great way to gain trust and to create a connection with Kiva borrowers.
The power of language is one simple way that Kiva’s mission to connect people is being implemented. When you are forced to find ways to communicate, you gravitate towards shared beliefs and experiences. I find that when communication is possible, the payoff is rewarding. That reward is the knowledge that I have developed a relationship with someone who grew up in a different country and culture, and speaks a different language. Fostering connections is part of the Kiva experience that fellows, lenders, and supporters all share to some degree. Kiva allows us to understand the importance of engaging the global community. I am fortunate to be a part of such an organization.
Andrew Whiteman is Kiva Fellow (KF8) working in Cotonou, Benin.
Tune in to “As the Microfinance Mundo Turns”
Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of “As the Microfinance Mundo Turns.”
Pissed Off Kiva Lenders
By John Briggs, KF8 Kenya
Update on sentiment shift: On June 23, Tom, the team captain for the (formerly) Pissed Off Kiva Lenders, changed the team name to Unhappy Kiva Lenders. Tom explained the name change in a posting on the team page: “I want the day to come soon when the team name will be ‘Delighted Again Kiva Lenders’ but the step above in the name change reflects current progress.”
Some Kiva lenders are pissed off about Kiva’s recent launch of loans to borrowers in the United States. Their angry cry has been heard in Kenya.
I arrived in Kenya two weeks ago to work with new Kiva field partner KADET. My marathon orientation-and-training tour is in full swing: this week I met dozens of KADET branch personnel in the western cities of Kisumu and Eldoret.
Successfully setting up Kiva-related operations poses many challenges for MFIs, but my new KADET colleagues made quick work of it. Both branches were able to post borrowers to Kiva on the same day they were introduced to it: Kisumu posted Maulyne’s loan and Eldoret posted Monicah’s loan.
Both loans were funded overnight, and the KADET staff was jubilant. At the Eldoret branch I joined KADET staff in poring over the Kiva lenders and lending teams who had supported Monicah. One lending team for Monicah’s loan jumped out at us: the Pissed Off Kiva Lenders.
Pissed off lenders? People at KADET were surprised. This wasn’t in the Kiva orientation I’d given them. Stephen Makanga, KADET’s integration and donor relations manager, and I decided to open the Pissed Off Kiva Lenders team page to find out more.
Image from the Pissed Off Kiva Lenders' team page
A statement on the page announced, “Kiva’s stated mission is to ‘alleviate poverty’. Poverty is defined as: ‘the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions’. Does that sound more like the situation for US Kiva borrowers or borrowers from the Third World countries?”
Stephen gave the page an incredulous stare and kept reading.
New Paradise: An Adventure in Finding New Borrowers
By Courtney Kemps, KF8 Peru
Earlier this week I accompanied Maribel, director of Manuela Ramos’s Pucallpa office, and Liz, one of the loan officers, to an informational meeting for a new group of borrowers that turned out to be more of an adventure than any of us had expected. We rose early Monday morning to take a long wooden boat from Pucallpa’s port up the Ucayali River to a tiny town called Nuevo Paraiso (New Paradise). It was Manuela Ramos’s first visit to New Paradise, a town populated by indigenous Shipibo-speaking people who had heard about the possibility of receiving loans from Manuela through a radio advertisement put out by the Pucallpa office last year. The town of New Paradise, consisting of a series of wooden homes which line a single wide dirt road, is accessible only by boat and will soon be the furthest community served by Manuela’s Pucallpa office.
The adventure began with the harder-than-expected task of simply trying to figure out how to get to New Paradise. Liz and I walked up and down the mud banks of Pucallpa’s incredibly dynamic, chaotic port asking which boat would take us there. Each person we questioned pointed us in the opposite direction of the one we had asked immediately before. After half an hour of this, we finally managed to find the right boat. Once on board, every time the boat stopped at some point along the river we had to ask if we had arrived at New Paradise. Four hours after embarking we pulled up to a completely nondescript riverbank, unmarked by anything that would indicate a nearby settlement. Upon leaving the boat we discovered that we still needed to walk 45 minutes through a series of banana plantations to reach the town.
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Pucallpa's port
The Power of Education and Collaboration
As I described in a previous blog post, EDESA (Kiva’s field partner in Costa Rica) works with a network of Community Credit Enterprises (ECCs by their Spanish acronym). To reiterate a bit, the ECCs are small, grassroots microfinance organizations formed by rural community members. FINCA Costa Rica provides extensive training in these communities to teach members how to work together to create and run a profitable business that provides financial services among other things. I recently visited one of the oldest and largest ECCs, La Asociación de Productores de El Sauce (The Association of Producers of El Sauce – El Sauce for short).
This ECC is a phenomenal example of what people can do with just a little money, a little training, and a lot of motivation. The El Sauce ECC started about 17 years ago with only 13 members and no money. They quickly grew to 23 members and Finca provided them with their first loan: just over US$1,100 to invest in farming projects across all the members. Over the years they have grown steadily and currently have 136 members holding 531 shares and have given a total of 2,062 microloans.
The beauty of the El Sauce ECC, however, is not just the manner in which it has provided financial services to the community, but how it has used the foundation of the ECC to expand in many ways. (more…)
Where are the S’mores?
Athan Makansi – KF8 – Apia, Samoa
Jump on the Samoan time machine and watch as a few neighbors help prepare a delicious meal of taro, breadfruit, coconut cream, potatoes, chicken and tuna in a giant fire pit as Samoans have for many, many years. But no, Samoans don’t make s’mores.
Talofa (Hello), from Samoa. I arrived last Friday in the glorious sunshine of Samoa, eager to start my fellowship with SPBD, Kiva’s partner in Apia, the capital (and only) city. Very quickly I became aware of a remarkable generosity between Samoans. My landlord offered to cook for me, a taxi driver gave me a free ride, and all types of Samoans generously flashed a toothy smile my way. In every instance of generosity I can’t help but let a smile sneak out in return.
More Ways to Connect with Kiva!
By Sloane Berrent, KF8, Philippines
As a Kiva Fellow, drinking the Kiva kool-aid and eating, living, breathing Kiva day-in and day-out, my browser is full of tabs following Kiva online. I wanted to share those ways to connect with you. So you too, can friend, follow, subscribe and join away!
Blogs:
- Kiva Fellows – a great place to read all about the stories, experiences and reflections of the approximately 40 Kiva Fellows that are currently in the field.
- Kiva Blog – To read about happenings from Kiva HQ including new country launches, partnerships and resources for ways to get more involved with Kiva.
YouTube
Phew! Is there anything I’m missing? Is there anywhere you’d like to see Kiva online that isn’t listed here? Thanks and happy connecting, see you around the Internet!
Sloane Berrent, KF8, is currently serving her placement with Ahon sa Hirap (ASHI) in the Philippines. She is learning to love, or at least not visible cringe from, love ballads from the ‘90s, the de rigueur music choice in every taxi, tricycle, jeepney, café and restaurant experienced thus far. When better “connected” you can find her promoting Kiva on Twitter and writing about social action campaigns on her blog, The Causemopolitan.
Better Together
Joel Carlman – Kisumu, Kenya – KF8
Hello from Kisumu, Kenya! After 36 hours of flying and several very sound nights of sleep, I’m writing you from the offices of Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (K-MET), our Kiva field partner! I say our because I have the privilege of working alongside my wife, Alison Carlman throughout our Kiva Fellowship. What an experience!
After arriving at the tiny Kisumu airport on Monday evening, we were able to settle into our temporary housing on the K-MET “complex.” We were in a bit of a daze from the sleepless flights and harrowing airport encounters trying to convince airport personnel in every country that we traveled through that they should exempt us from the charges levied on overweight baggage. Since when is 30kg a person overweight!?
Moving on.
The Kenyan experience thus far has been wonderful. From Ekesa, the administrative manager who picked us up from the airport, to the administrative staff, to John Asuke, the director of the revolving loan fund, to the staff at the field offices—everyone we have encountered at K-MET—and in Kenya in general—has warmed our hearts to an unexpected extent. We are so excited to be able to work with this group of exceptional people! (more…)
A Local Lending Place for Global Thinkers
At the fellows training some of my companeros seemed shocked that I’d want to do a fellowship in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I have to admit, I admire the cost of a Terere in Paraguay compared to price of latte in NYC. Regardless, it’s been an incredible experience to participate with Kiva on the US launch.
In many ways the fellowship, the entreprenuers, even New York City itself has at times seemed enormously comparable to a fellowship in a developing country (I mean have you used the subways here!!!???). But about the cause…
Why US microfinance….
By launching in the United States, Kiva is creating a local lending place for global thinkers. By supporting US microfinance and organizations like ACCION USA, you are supporting community.
Kiva lenders want to support individuals around the globe that work hard to support themselves and their families. These entrepreneurs also dream of creating legacies. Kiva is helping to provide equal access to capital for business owners that, regardless of the country they live in, have struggled to obtain the credit elsewhere.
I believe that by supporting a US business on Kiva, we truly understand the goal of microfinance- and we are balancing the scales to open up opportunities for everyone.
Trinidad wanted to start a daycare, a bank turned her away, a loan shark almost lured her… instead a pool of individuals on Kiva helped to make her dream reality.
Sustainability is one of Kiva’s principles. Who can argue that sustainability isn’t needed in the US?
Kiva lenders are supporting sustainable businesses, building communities and helping to create legacies- 25 dollars at a time.
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Erica Dorn is currently serving at ACCION USA. erica.dorn@fellows.kiva.org
¡Adios, Arariwa!
In a desperate last-minute attempt to get my name off the top of the “least-blogging fellows” list and fulfill my grandma’s request for more blogs, I’d like to share some of my favorite photos from my 10-week placement at Asociacion Arariwa in Cusco, Peru.
Arariwa is an amazing organization with an extremely dedicated group of loan officers. I was consistently impressed with loan officers’ dedication to their clients—not just putting in long hours for little pay and running risks by carrying cash, but in some cases even relocating to remote villages in order to serve clients without previous access to financial services. For example, Tula Barazorda and Armando Cabrera live and work in Pilcopata, a remote jungle town that’s 8+ hours from Cusco on rough, narrow dirt roads. Pilcopata is a sleepy little town where there’s little to do but shoot the breeze and swat the mosquitoes. One morning – over breakfast, no less – Tula and Armando had a long, nonchalant conversation about all the different kinds of bugs that can burrow under your skin, how to tell the difference, and the pros and cons of each one (never before have I been so grateful to my parents for raising me in Minnesota, where all we have is ticks).
All in all, my time at Arariwa was an incredible experience, and I’m already itching to go back and visit. I’m also looking forward to reading much more frequent blogs from my Arariwa successor, Lee Bruner!
To see all currently fundraising loans from Asociación Arariwa, click here.
Cynthia McMurry is a fourth-time Kiva fellow working with brand new Kiva field partner Fundación Espoir in Quito, Ecuador. Previously she worked with Fundación AgroCapital in Bolivia and FINCA Peru and Asociación Arariwa in Peru.
A $62 Million Dollar Mistake
The cancellation of funds and an expanding economic crisis has left the majority of Nicaragua’s poor without a support system.
Continue Reading 17 June 2009 at 07:35 ashleyolivia 2 comments
The Cows of Cochabamba
By Nick Cain, KF7 Paraguay
In Cochabamba, Bolivia, milk is quite literally the ticket to financial services and economic growth. Kiva lenders, meet CIDRE, your newest Field Partner in Bolivia. Last week I traveled from Asunción, Paraguay to Cochabamba, Bolivia to train CIDRE’s staff members on the Kiva platform, help them learn a little about the Kiva community, and make sure they had everything they needed in order to start connecting their borrowers to Kiva lenders.
- A panoramic view of Cochabamba
The staff was enthusiastic to get to work and learn more about Kiva, so Day One of my visit was all training sessions and PowerPoints. But on Day Two, CIDRE’s new Kiva Coordinator, Diego Cardona, and I set off for the outskirts of Cochabamba to meet some borrowers. Most of CIDRE’s loan products are geared to serve the region’s dairy farmers, a community of micro-entrepreneurs who own anywhere from 5 – 25 cows and earn income by selling milk to Pil, the region’s lone dairy corporation. Cochabamba’s dairy farmers are concentrated in a large swath of land behind the city’s airport. About 10 minutes after leaving CIDRE’s offices in the city center, paved roads gave way to a lumpy, dusty web of cinder-block houses and muddy cow pastures. Eventually Diego and I came to a stop, eye-to-eye with a couple of rather hefty bovines.
Through Sickness and In Health
My First Center Meeting with Antique Southwest Group
By Sloane Berrent, KF8, Philippines
Just five days into my Kiva Fellowship, one thing I already know, this is truly an amazing experience, no two ways about it. I am learning things, going places, meeting people that never in a million years would a normal traveler experience.
It’s also quite frankly, hard. This isn’t like jaunting in my solo travels around the world, being carefree and on my own schedule, meeting fellow travelers on the road and taking my own adventures at every turn. It’s a hard mattress on the floor, a cold shower that consists of filling a bucket with water and throwing cups of it over my shoulder and in my hair, it’s no air-conditioning and tossing and turning at night in my sleep waking up sweating. It’s spraying copious amounts of bug spray and those suckers still getting my ankles, my knees, the back of my neck. It’s taking multiple forms of transportation every day, on this motorbike, off that jeepney, into another taxi. It’s SLOW and unreliable Internet when all I want to do is post a blog post like THIS and respond to the most urgent emails and be done with the computer again for the day. But fighting for each page load. It’s meeting new people every day and they are so excited to meet me and I have to fight through the heat and exhaustion of all of the above and show the same enthusiasm back.
It’s hard. It’s also, in just under a week so deeply gratifying in the most pure and honest way I could ever describe.
It’s tears brimming in my eyes multiple times a day getting out in the field and meeting woman after woman who has benefited from my field partner, ASHI. It’s learning about microfinance in this region and meeting some of the most committed and passionate people I’ve ever had the privilege to come in contact with who chose to work at an NGO despite the long hours and lack of pay because they believe in the power of microfinance. It’s walking through villages, up hills and through fields to meet borrowers in their homes who always accept us with open arms and enthusiasm. It is these women who tell me how they’ve been able through one loan after another to slowly be able to send their children to better schools and afford college. It’s seeing the camaraderie in women who tell me that before ASHI (and in turn Kiva) they were shy and didn’t know their neighbors. It is these women who tell me that being part of a group of borrowers they are now like sisters and they are accountable to each other through sickness and health. It’s hearing about how they have a positive view of the future for their children. They tell me this all the while talking and laughing louder than the woman sitting next to them. These women shy? I truly can’t believe it.
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Ayacucho’s voice in Peru’s Amazon conflict
¡La selva no se vende, la selva se defiende!
“The forest is not for sale, The forest we defend!” shouted the community of Ayacucho while pumping their fists in the air. Sweat dripped down their foreheads in the midday sun and not a soul was dressed for a day at the office. The spirit of the crowd was overwhelming, as if every person had their heart invested in the political crisis unfolding in Peru, no matter its geographic distance from here.
Hours after my arrival in Ayacucho on Tuesday, while I was still entranced by the cultural beauty of the place and struggling for air due to altitude, I was told the roads into the town were to be closed at midnight, and water and electricity might be shut off. The other volunteers at my MFI and I joked that the Peruvians were hazing me – the newest guerita in town.
In the Bagua region of Peru, an area where life is sustained by the Amazon’s great forest, live many indigenous people who have subsided on local hunting for generations. Far away in the urban metropolis of Lima, Peruvian President Alan Garcia has been coming up with a plan for Peru to have freer trade and more room for foreign corporations, at the request of the U.S. Two bills were created that would allow thousands of square miles in a formerly protected area of the Amazon rain forest to be for sale – which could indicate logging and/or a foreign oil company.
The indigenous have been rioting. They feel that their rights are being ignored, as this is an area they consider their own. The other side, including many urban dwellers, see the indigenous as unfairly resistant to change and purposefully difficult to negotiate with.
Another chant begins.
“Pueblo Amazona, Ayacucho esta contigo!”
Amazon region, Ayacucho supports you. Ayacucho can relate to the plight of rural farmers and indigenous communities often ignored and forgotten by the national government. And once they heard of the violence from the conflict last Friday – over 30 indigenous killed and hundreds more missing – it became a personal call to action. Further fanning the flame is a rampant rumor that the missing indigenous were killed and thrown into the nearby river by the police in order to cover up their deaths.
Upending microcredit: Cambodians use Kiva to lend to U.S. borrowers
This Wednesday marked a watershed moment for Kiva.org: borrowers from the U.S. made a well-publicized debut on the person-to-person microlending website. It left no doubt that microcredit, seen by many as the province of the poor, had arrived to serve Americans in need.
The floodgates are open, and they sluice both ways.
Kiva’s launch of lending in the U.S. has impassioned many, including a group of people in Cambodia near and dear to me — the staff of Maxima Mikroheranvatho, a Kiva partner microfinance institution where I was a Kiva Fellow from October 2008 to February 2009.
As Kiva ambassador-in-the-trenches at Maxima, one of the things I’d tried to impress upon them was the satisfaction I get out of being a Kiva lender. So when my posting at Maxima ended earlier this year, I’d settled on the perfect gift to help them understand this: a Kiva gift certificate.
Over our farewell dinner in Phnom Penh, I pulled out a printout of the Kiva gift certificate page and presented it to the senior managers at Maxima. As they’re in the business of microlending, minor disbelief ensued. Kiva!? Who would they lend to? When I told them that Kiva was considering launching in the U.S., excitement erupted.
What a difference a government makes
Four weeks ago I left my first placement in Cambodia and came to the Philippines where I started my second assignment with Kiva Field Partner ASKI. With each day at ASKI I have been more and more impressed by the dedication of the staff and the amazing programs that they are running.
Last week I started working on a blog post where I plan to conduct video interviews with staff that work on what ASKI calls, their “Beyond Microfinance” programs. These programs include; health insurance, life insurance, community development, housing loans for government built low income housing units, marketing training, finance training and a whole foundation that provides everything from child care to scholarships to toilets.
As I began to research each program’s operation it became obvious that each one of them were a testament to the staff’s tireless efforts to serve their clients in every possible way. Most of the programs are funded directly through profits earned in their core micro credit business, which I thought was an incredible use of profits. There was something else I discovered that struck me as well; many of these programs would not be possible without partnership with or support from the Filipino government.
I found that the health insurance, life insurance and housing loan programs are in direct partnership with the government, and the community development program helps villages work with the local government to complete valuable infrastructure projects.
I immediately thought back to my time in Cambodia and I asked myself:
