Archive for March, 2010
Mobile Banking at the Bank for All
Instructions: Start with a plain white van. Insert several computers. Connect to a power supply as well as a backup power supply. Build connection to a central network. Apply a splashy paint job and finish with enthusiastic staff. Result: A bank on wheels.
Get Involved!
Kiva partners become Kiva lenders
Alidé’s Kiva coordinator spends a lot of time on the Kiva site, mainly from the back end, uploading profiles and journals. But she’s never experienced what it’s like to be a Kiva lender, an experience I wanted to give her thanks to the $25 Kiva gift certificate I’d received at training. Getting her to use it has been a challenge.
I gave her a print out of the certificate on my second day, but she kept putting off when we’d use it. Last week when there was a lull in work, but solid-seeming electricity, I decided it was time. She didn’t seem happy about my decision and begged for another colleague to join us. But I don’t understand. What do you want us to do? they asked with alarm. (more…)
Religious Tradition or Financial Burden?
As you drive through the small village of Blimbingsari in northwest Bali, you immediately notice two things; the first is that this is a Christian village, of note because Bali is 94% Hindu, 5% Muslim and only 1% Christian. In fact, this is the largest Christian community in Bali. The second thing you notice is that the homes in Blimbingsari appear to be in much better condition than those of neighboring villages. They are all brick or cement, have ceramic-tile roofs and attractive paint-jobs, and many even have flower gardens in front, while those in adjacent villages often have mud floors and are of thatch construction in various states of disrepair.
On a recent visit to the branch office of Koperasi Mitra Usaha Kecil, I asked Kiva Coordinator Pak Zeruya Lesmana why the difference between housing in Blimbingsari and the neighboring villages was so dramatic.
More on the “guy behind the guy”
I have a hunch that most lenders on Kiva don’t pay to much attention to field partner profiles. It isn’t hard to understand why: they’re long on text and short on story. Folks looking for a nice, “soft-touch” way of putting their money to good use are happy to trust that Kiva only posts worthy profiles from worthy places. And that’s OK. Kiva does carefully vet its field partners. Skip out on those details, though, and you lose a bit of your voice. From Accion USA to Zene za Zene, each field partner has their own approach to microfinance and their own specific role in their community.
Ararat & Me – One Armenian’s Return to the Homeland
If it weren’t for a genocide, I wouldn’t be writing this. It’s taken me twenty-six years, but I’m finally back in the country my great grandparents fled in 1915 after the Armenian Genocide took the lives of all of their parents — right in front of their eyes.
You see, I’m half Armenian (the surname is the giveaway) and half German, but American-born. And if I hadn’t been lucky enough to enter this world in a Manhattan maternity ward, I sincerely doubt I’d have been able to have the business success I’ve enjoyed. I didn’t do anything to deserve the privilege of a birth in the USA (my forefathers earned that) and I see microfinance as a way to export the best of capitalism to give many of the world’s poor a chance to create their own futures.
humble pie tastes like…..rice and curry?
By Brian Kelly, KF10, Sri Lanka
Well it’s about time I joined in on the fun. It seems to be a rite of passage for fellows stationed in the tropics. When regularly consuming the fellows blog as an eager Kiva Fellow applicant, I seemed to often come across many of the “malaria! ugh!” or “a trip to the hospital in Kenya…” genre of blog posts from prior fellows succumbing to the fun and lovely illnesses that are new to many westerners in exotic locations. It almost seems clichéd to write a KF blog entry about a trip to the hospital, but maybe its just an elite club that I should feel honored to be a part of, who knows. Either way, after a sturdily powering my way through a healthy KF9 fellowship in Armenia sans frostbite, I was feeling pretty invincible as I arrived to Sri Lanka. And it only took a week before I was served a healthy dose of humble pie when I could barely move from my bed one morning. Six days later, I was still in the hospital. Who knew humble pie is flavored like Sri Lankan rice and curry?
Continue Reading 3 March 2010 at 08:20 bkbriankelly 5 comments
“The Apprentice” Should Hold Auditions in the Philippines
If Donald Trump needs new contestants for his show “The Apprentice”, he should look no further than the Rizal province in the Philippines.
Continue Reading 3 March 2010 at 07:45 Christina Reyes 5 comments
What’s your ugly side?
So it turns out I have an ugly competitive side. I take that back, it does not “turn out” I have an ugly competitive side, I confess I have known about it for a long time and this weekend it has shown its teeth.
Continue Reading 2 March 2010 at 03:25 Monica Ann Bernadette 11 comments
Freetown blues
So Freetown is not much of a town and for a capital city it is pretty dismal. It’s not a bad place though – friendly and if you take care not to step in front of a car, you can walk the streets safely at any time of day. The latter being a lot more than can be said for some of the more prosperous cities on the continent, think Nairobi, Johannesburg etc.
The Cotton tree in downtown Freetown, this majestic tree has seen quite a bit in its life. Once a venue for slave trade, it later became a focal point for the “Nova Scotians” who founded Freetown - former slaves who had fought for British during the American revolutionary war. Now it towers over the busiest intersection in the country.
My predecessor, Jenny Kim, lists some truly horrifying stats in her excellent blog entry, that give an impression of the dire straits Sierra Leone finds itself in, eight years after the conclusion of the civil war. I strongly recommend anyone interested to give it a read. Statistics however often only tell part of the story, and as my counterpart Karen Buxton, across the border in Liberia observes: 90 % unemployment does not equate to nine out of ten people sitting around idle. Indeed the streets here are packed with every kind of product imaginable for sale, often stacked taller than the person carrying them on his or her head.
Poverty in the form it takes here in Sierra Leone is a strange thing, to the outside observer it is both shockingly obvious and at the same time largely unknowable. Even for that rare and weird creature I am, – a RangeRoverless “witeboi” living in the Western area, it can only be seen from afar. Take for instance food security, which for many people here is a very real issue, I cannot on an experiential level know this. I might conceivably limit myself to a diet similar to that of someone facing these challenges but it would be only just that, – limiting myself. At any point I found myself tiring of the experiment, my say-so and a tip would produce a meal delivered to wherever I was. Indeed fresh lobster washed down with chilled Champagne is only a cab ride away. The above does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that that I am cut off from my surroundings, in fact most things, I share with folks here: family, love of music, an interest in politics and religion, the list goes on.
Underutilized resource: Lumley beach in Freetown, by Sierra Leonian standards a second rate beach
It is my great hope that the Kiva community and the grater microfinance machinery can play positive role in helping Sierra Leone back on its feet. The abundant entrepreneurial spirit and optimism here seem to provide a solid foundation for that hope. And things are getting better, this is the perception expressed by people who are in a position to know. There is still a long way to go though and “This country is not supposed to be like this” is a statement I often come across.
Nilaus Hansen is a Kiva Fellow serving in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He divides his time there between the local MFIs ARD and LAPO SL and is well on his way to becoming a Cassava leaf connoisseur.
The Forest Through the Trees
Several days ago I woke up at 4:30 in the morning because my high-power fan, which I position directly on me, three feet from my bed, had blown my sheet and fitted sheet completely off the mattress (yeah, I was confused too). In order to put an end to the hectic sheet flapping, I switched off the fan. Once I had restored order to my bed, I found a comfortable position and tried to go back to sleep. Then, two things happened that very quickly alerted me to the fact that I had forgotten to turn the fan back on.
Continue Reading 1 March 2010 at 08:19 bgoldfinger 10 comments
Why Charge Any Interest At All?
Microfinance interest rate discussions usually center on how much and often overlook the question of whether poor microborrowers should pay any interest at all. Kiva lenders are a philanthropic bunch. They could eliminate interest rates and cover administrative costs with donations, but for economic and ethical reasons they shouldn’t.
