Archive for June 4th, 2009
Making it work, against all the odds
Walking down Ring Road on Monday (the main road that encompasses the cities of Kathmandu and Patan) it felt as though there had been a mass evacuation and I was the only one who didn’t receive the memo. On a road that is usually so congested with traffic that I allow myself five minutes extra travel time in order to cross it, there was not a single vehicle to be seen and ndhonly a scattering of people here and there. The fruit sellers that usually ‘Namaste’ me on my walk into town had vanished and the usual strip of corner shops selling everything from lentils to coca cola had pulled down their shutters. Tyre barricades burnt to the ground around the city and, as usual, a number of people who got in the way were attacked by protesters. A city-wide ‘bandh’ (a public protest) had been announced and Nepal closed shop for the day.
Bandh’s are quite regular occurrences in Nepal and they effectively close down the cities of Kathmandu and Patan. The protesters threaten any individual who dares to use a mode of transport other than walking on foot and any business owner who negates to close their shop for the day is open to attack. For the children of Nepal, a bandh is a holiday from school but for the rest of the population, a bandh disables the workforce and puts citizens livelihood at risk.
Four days into my fellowship with Kiva and I have quickly realised that productivity is a relative concept in Nepal. BPW Patan, the partner institute that I am based with, is comprised of a highly dedicated team, many of whom are volunteers and donate several days a week of their time to the organisation. The team travel long distances and endure hazardous conditions in order to reach out to women borrowers living in remote pockets of Nepal. And yet their productivity is compromised by barriers entirely beyond their control.
7 comments 4 June 2009
Two’s company, Kiva’s a crowd
Kiva is a crowdsourcer.
Crowds of lenders are the source of funds for Kiva borrowers. A very recent milestone quietly appeared on the Kiva statistics page — over half a million lenders have funded borrower loans on the Kiva website. That’s one big crowd!
There’s also a crowd of volunteers and avid Kiva boosters: hundreds of volunteer editors and translators, dozens of Kiva Fellows in the field, umpteen heroic souls who volunteer at Kiva headquarters in San Francisco, and the nearly five-thousand-strong group of Kiva Friends, the best compadres ever.
It’s good company to keep. Much of our interaction is in, and uniquely facilitated by, the electronic ether (the Internets, a series of tubes). Face-to-face meetings may never occur, but can be a cause for celebration when they do.
5 comments 4 June 2009
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