Archive for 20 July 2009
From Sweets to Riches – The Business of Cookies
Pre-Story: Hollywood Comes to Kyrgyzstan
Last week, our MFI was visited by a pair of filmmakers from Brazil who were shooting a documentary on microfinance and the impact it has on the lives of clients. Their plan was to travel the globe for 10 months and record customers, loan officers, and other microfinance specialists in different parts of the world. After shooting in Brazil and Russia, they were coming to Kyrgyzstan and turned to our organization to help them with the logistics.
We arranged for them to meet and interview several of our clients and staff members in the Issyk-Kul region (about 4 hours away from the capital of Kyrgyzstan – Bishkek – where our headquarters are) and I had an opportunity to come with them to translate the interviews.
As a Kiva Fellow, we typically get to talk to clients frequently to learn more about their lives, businesses and the impact that credit has had on them. However, those conversations are typically brief, since the clients, and often the loan officers that accompany us, are on a tight schedule.
This time around, however, the interviews lasted for more than an hour and were in a relaxed, non-rushed setting. As a result, it offered fascinating insights into the lives of these inspiring business owners and showed many more dimensions to the clients.
I’d like to share with you a story of a husband and wife who have created a successful bakery and how they’ve come to this point.
And That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles…
The World’s Most Expensive Cities – Oslo, Moscow…Kinshasa?
By: John Soleanicov, KF8 DRC
Nope, that’s not a misprint, nor an exaggeration. You can find the source right here. Kinshasa comes in at number 6. The first time I tried to go grocery shopping, I thought I had the exchange rate wrong. $20 for a small piece of beef? That can’t be right. Well, it is.
Can this really be one of the most expensive cities in the world?
Home of the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been flooded with foreign troops, aid workers and diplomats, many with generous per diems. This, combined with Congo’s poor infrastructure and lack of production capacity, has resulted in prices that match or exceed those in most developed countries. (Note: Luanda, Angola is ranked even higher, at number 1, for similar reasons.)
It is possible to purchase locally-produced items at more reasonable prices (and this how local Congolese are able to survive) but not in the center of the city, where expatriates live. Getting to areas where food is actually affordable is difficult and can be unsafe, especially after dark. The center, meanwhile, is dotted with expat-oriented grocery stores filled with imported goods at exorbitant prices.
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