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.
2 comments 30 June 2009
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).
4 comments 30 June 2009
As the Microfinance Mundo Turns: The Best Nicaraguan Ice Cream
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Doña Cony’s ice cream.
Continue Reading 3 comments 29 June 2009
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 7 comments 28 June 2009
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
Continue Reading 2 comments 27 June 2009
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.
11 comments 26 June 2009
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…)
6 comments 26 June 2009
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…)
1 comment 25 June 2009
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
2 comments 24 June 2009
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…)
7 comments 24 June 2009
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