Archive for January, 2010
Happy New Year: Ecuador Style
By Josh Wilcox, KF10 Ecuador
Greetings from KF10! As the first to start a placement with the most recent Fellows class, I’d like to share my first New Year’s experience outside the good ol’ US of A. During the first week of my Kiva Fellows placement at brand new Kiva Field Partner Cooperativa San José, I was fortunate enough to spend December 31 recognizing and celebrating the Año Viejo (Old Year) while also welcoming in the Año Nuevo (New Year). At Cooperativa San José, one of the Cooperativa’s suppliers of office materials gave the entire staff a cooked chancho (pig). As is the tradition every year to recognize the Año Viejo on December 31, the employees of the Cooperativa celebrated by eating la carne (meat) and el cuero (pig skin) of the pig accompanied with salad and mote (boiled corn) around 10am!
From the Office of the President
By Prem Thomas, KF9, Philippines
After spending over three months in Manila working in the Center for Community Transformation Credit Cooperative’s (CCT) head office, I thought it would be interesting for the Kiva family to hear from CCT’s President and Founder Ruth Callanta and meet my coworkers. Ate Ruth, as she is called by her coworkers (Ate, pronounced “ah-TEH”, is a Tagalog term of respect meaning older sister), is very passionate about her work and respected and loved by the CCT community for her vision and dedication.
If you don’t have time to watch the whole video, here is a table of contents of the questions: (more…)
Candy, where’s my skirt?
Mary Riedel KF 9 Philippines
Last month I picked up my clothes from the Washeteria. I was psyched, walking home with that, “I have clean clothes to wear,” feeling (you know the one). I got home, opened the cube shaped bag, it smelled so nice, even my underwear were folded! “What can I wear tomorrow?”
I stumbled upon a long blue, polyester skirt. “Hmmm, this definitely doesn’t look like mine,” (although having worn uniforms for 12 years I did
feel a slight connection.)
Quickly I worried, “If I have someone else things I wonder if someone has anything of mine.” I looked, my black skirt was missing.
Who is Poor? Defining Poverty
by Josh Weinstein, KF9 Philippines
How do you define poverty? A basic needs index looks at whether (and to what extent) fundamental needs are fulfilled – food, water, shelter, clothing – and whether people have access to critical services – education, information (newspapers, etc.), sanitation facilities, healthcare, financial services. This is an absolute poverty calculation, which uses a standard threshold that can be compared across countries and continents. Another method is to use a national poverty line, usually a percentage of median income. For example, if the median income is $10,000 USD, and the poverty line is 60% of that, any family making below $6,000 is technically below the poverty line. This is a relative poverty calculation, because it is country-specific. Using this method, it doesn’t make sense to compare across countries, since the poverty line in wealthier countries with higher median incomes will allow for greater purchasing power than in much poorer countries. In microfinance (and development in general), you often hear about the percentage of the population that lives on less than $1/day – the definition of extreme poverty – or $2/day, or some other defining statistic of poverty.
Statistics are important for microfinance institutions (MFIs). When you know what you are dealing with, you can more effectively target the population with programs that are proven to work. It is important for an MFI to understand its clients and where they exist on the spectrum of poverty. This is actually more difficult to assess than you’d think. It is not feasible to ask clients how many dollars a day they spend, or even try to determine their income relative to the rest of the population. Instead, MFIs use social performance metrics – simple tools to help them to define exactly what they are as an organization and whom they are serving. They are basically proxies, which, when examined in aggregate, give the MFIs a profile of the poverty level of their clients.
The View From Here
By Kelly McKinnon, KF9 Leon, Nicaragua
In my time as a Kiva Fellow I’ve written more than 100 borrower profiles and 40 or so journal updates. When writing profiles one tends to fall into a rhythm, there are words that come up repeatedly, expressions that are almost invariably used, translations that don’t quite work. Often my days are spent trying to deciphering the handwriting of a loan officer with little knowledge of the borrower beyond what is scrawled. Most of the time I look at the back of a computer. It wasn’t exactly the vision I had when I dreamed of joining the ranks of Kiva Fellows.
The less romantic side of being a Kiva Fellow
Senegal’s Answer to the Golden Arches?
By Ilmari Soininen, KF9 Thies, Senegal
Of the forty-eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, how many would you guess have a Mcdonald’s? Why would one care?
Thomas Friedman, the columnist and author, posited “No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s”. If one had missed the lesson on causation versus correlation back in statistics class, the answer to ending conflict in Africa would be simple. Step one:open a Mcdonalds in every country on the continent. Step two: award Ronald Mcdonald the Nobel Peace Prize (“I’d like to thank God, the Hamburgler…”).
Friedman’s point was that globalization ties countries closer economically, increasing the opportunity cost of waging war. A dubious theory on conflict prevention, especially as much of the residual conflict is internal, not countries fighting other countries. But perhaps the lack of Mcdonald’s in Africa can tell us something. Oh, and the answer to the initial question: as of 2009, only three of forty-eight countries in SSA have Mcdonald’s. – one of them being (a bit cryptically) Zimbabwe.
The idea of chains and franchises popped into my head a couple of weeks back, when I visited a client, Fatou Binetou Dieng. According to the profile, she had used her loan to purchase traditional West African fabrics to sell in her neighborhood. Indeed she had. But this was a year ago. (more…)
And What Are Your Hopes and Dreams…? For Your Family… For Yourself?
By Anne Hector, KF9, KenyaBad Roads, Interest Rates, and MFI Sustainability
By Meg Gray, KF9 Nicaragua
One example of a bad road I have faced.
I’ve driven over some pretty terrible roads over the last three months. It doesn’t seem to matter if they’re gravel, paved, dirt, or a mixture of the three. In Nicaragua every road has character and usually this “character” makes it harder to get to CEPRODEL’s clients. Now besides being an inconvenience, why does this matter? It matters because bad roads are just one of many factors that contribute to high operating costs for a microfinance institution (MFI). High operating costs mean higher interest rates are necessary in order for the MFI to be sustainable.
I feel like the conversation about interest rates usually starts and stops with the word “usurious” or “unfair,” when in reality it is much more complex than that. CEPRODEL charges 36% interest on loans to small businesses (rates are lower for some other types of loans) and yet I’ve talked to numerous clients who comment that they like working with CEPRODEL because their interest rates are so low. How could this be? (more…)
Micro-business on the mind
By Julia Kastner, KF10 Mexico
Feliz Navidad and Feliz Año Nuevo from Mexico!
Yesterday was the first day of my second Kiva placement at a brand new MFI called CrediComun. I completed my first placement with Fundacion Realidad in mid-December (make a loan to them here!) so I had a couple weeks of vacation to travel! I went to the city of Oaxaca, a city famous for history and art, and to Zihuatenejo, a fishing village turned beach. Let’s just say it was a really tough couple of weeks! But I must admit, I couldn’t quite clear the microfinance perspective from my eyes…
Mexico s full of micro-businesses. Everywhere I went, I ran into people who reminded me of the clients I had worked with over the last couple of months, whether it was women selling tamales (a regional dumpling-like food) on the street or the taxi drivers who helped me get around.
Families still spin their own yarn in Teotitlan del Valle, outside of Oaxaca
In Oaxaca, I spent my time sipping coffee in chic, alternative cafes, visiting ancient ruins, and visiting natural wonders, but I also decided to go on tours of carpet-weaving and sculpture workshops to learn about local crafts. I just couldn’t stop myself from asking “what are your hopes for the business? How has your business changed the lives of you and your family?” The answer was always that owning a business had made a difference.
- Snacks for sale, by the beach.
Even in Zihuatenejo, I spent a lot of time chatting with the owner of the small hotel I stayed at about the history of his business and his hopes for the future. And everywhere I went, people were selling crafts, snacks, and drinks. Some people spend hours walking up and down the beaches with necklaces, baskets, or carved toys for sale.
Observing and talking with all these small businesses made me all the more excited to get back to Mexico City to start my second placement with an MFI called CrediComun. Monday was my first day, and I can already tell they’re going to be a great contribution to the Kiva network and will allow me to have some great new experiences! I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!
Behind the Scenes: How Kiva REALLY Works
By Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
As many Kiva supporters submitted entries to the Kiva Video Contest, I unfortunately was not able to upload my own version of “How Kiva Works” due to Internet issues in Peru. In order to not let the precious hours I spent go to waste, I have included below my attempt at describing how Kiva maintains their innovative model, particularly highlighting the role of the Field Partners, who perform an incredibly vital role in the Kiva cycle. Enjoy!
Josh Wilcox recently finished his KF9 placement with Caja Rural Señor de Luren in Ica, Peru and is beginning with Cooperativa San José in Chimbo, Ecuador as part of KF10. Become a part of the Kiva cycle by lending here and join the Caja Luren lending team!
No Need to Read
By Gemma North, KF9, Cambodia
I spend a lot of time walking the streets of Phnom Penh. This is not a common practice for Cambodians, who know better than to try and navigate the chaotic sidewalks which are essentially an outdoor extension of stores, restaurants and living rooms, or even spaces for entirely separate businesses such as bicycle repairmen, women selling barbecued chicken feet, or mobile phone refill kiosks. Yet I enjoy steering through this obstacle course as it allows me to take in, and slowly understand the details and habits that make up peoples’ daily lives. However, as an outsider who speaks quite limited Khmer and who cannot begin to decipher the script, I have limited means of absorbing and understanding the wider concerns that affect the society. Therefore I am lucky to find, amidst the bustling street scenes, clues on the broader issues facing this country today.
Ad on the back of a tuk tuk seat
More Green Loans Please
By Meg Gray, KF9 Nicaragua
Yarlin proudly shows me the solar panel she purchased with her Kiva loan.
As a Kiva lender, I wistfully search the “green loans” category every time I go to relend my funds on Kiva.org.
Sadly, I feel like I almost always get the “no loans found” response. This is too bad for many reasons. Green loans, such as solar panels, fruit trees, or water filtration systems, have such a profound (and sustainable) impact on the borrower’s life while also helping the environment at-large. CEPRODEL, my MFI, for instance, has a reforestation program where clients receive a loan to buy a mixture of trees to plant along riverbeds on their property.This protects the river from erosion caused be deforestation in the area and in the long term, the fruit trees will also provide food for the borrower’s families.
CEPRODEL client, Yarlin Moreno, is another example of a green loan. She used her Kiva loan to buy a solar panel for her house. Before the solar panel, her family did not have electricity. Her family lives so remotely that their whole community is off the power grid and her daughter, literally, walks almost 4 miles to school each day. (more…)
How much does it cost to reach the poorest?
by Thomas Gold, KF9, Dominican Republic
One of the aspects of microfinance that is often overlooked when arguing about the interest rates charged to borrowers, or sustainability of microfinance institutions, is the actual cost of giving a financial service to the most isolated communities. I thought I would tell about my latest visit to a group of borrowers, so you would be able to picture it. (more…)
When the Road Ends…
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo
Picture yourself on a bike riding along a beach. Nice image, isn’t it?
A typical main street in Lome
Now, swap the bike for a motorcycle fishtailing in the sand and replace the crashing waves with revving engines and honking cars. Add dust in your eyes, the smell of exhaust in your nose, and about 30 degrees of heat and you’ve come close to the daily journey of a loan officer in Lomé, Togo.
I know I’m not the first to blog about the difficult trails a loan officer must travel every day. However, many of the blog posts that have come before have been set in rural areas. Lomé, on the other hand, is the capital city of Togo, and home to over 700,000 people. It is an industrial center, a trade center, a travel center, and pretty much the central city in this small country. (more…)
Swahili Lesson 1: The Habari Family and Learning English in Kenya
By Hanna Azemati, KF9 Kenya
Our first Swahili class in the early morning tranquility of the still shuttered Prestige Plaza cafeteria in Kilimani was interjected with a myriad of embarrassing anecdotes of faux pas called forth by each new lesson that Lucy taught us. As Anne, Rachel and I, the three Nairobi Kiva Fellows, can attest, it behooves anyone new to Kenya to learn Swahili as promptly as possible and not because Kenyans don’t speak English. In fact, most Kenyans speak both official languages, English and Swahili, in addition to one of the sixty regional Bantu, Nilotic or Cushitic tribal languages. But as Lucy put it, “You can’t teach Swahili without teaching culture. And you might even find yourself learning some more English.” As we reviewed in our minds every interaction so far had to gauge the damage, we realized that the inverse is true also: without the linguistic investment, much of the inextricably linked Kenyan culture had escaped us.
