Archive for August, 2011
Cost of Kiva
There are 137 local microfinance institution partners around the world on the Kiva platform. Not only does each benefit from the access to a completely new universe of individual lenders, but they also receive loans with no interest charges from Kiva. This does not mean, however, that being a Kiva field partner comes without costs to the local institution. On the contrary, it often requires a significant amount of upfront expenses such as hiring of additional resources, training, and systems implementation, as well as the associated administrative and management expenses on a monthly basis.
Of Chinese Proverbs and Gambian Donkeys
by Tim Young, KF15, Senegal
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Give a man a donkey and you feed him for at least five years, providing the donkey is well treated and doesn’t get sick.
On a recent trip to the Gambia, Kiva Fellow Tim Young visited a fascinating project, which has for the last 10 years or so has been fighting poverty, by helping the local people help their working animals.
Continue Reading 31 August 2011 at 10:44 letimyoung 3 comments
Isabukuru Nziza, ACB! A Kiva Field Partner in Rwanda Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary
By Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda
Birthdays are celebrated around the world, and Rwanda – the tiny East African country of 1000 hills wedged between the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi – is no exception.
For its 5-year anniversary, the staff of Kiva’s field partner Amasezerano Community Bank (ACB) left its offices in Kigali for the shores of beautiful lake Kivu (unfortunately not named after Kiva) at the Congolese boarder. The trip was an occasion to remember key events in ACB’s history – mostly joyous, sometimes somber – but above all to celebrate.
Continue Reading 31 August 2011 at 08:19 Kathrin Gerner 11 comments
Updates from the Field: Loan Sharks, Snapshots + “the Country with a Smile”
Each Kiva borrower enjoys his or her own borrower profile page. We’ve all seen these pages: they acquaint us with the borrower’s story, plans for the future, country, and a photo in their business or home. Borrower profiles present us with a clear snapshot of the ebbs and flows of a borrower’s life. But how can we begin to flesh out what’s beyond the edges of the screen? On the Fellow’s blog, of course!
This week Kiva Fellows bring us a little closer to our borrowers. We try to walk in the shoes of those living under a dollar a day in Nicaragua. We learn about the power of accredited microfinance institutions for the average Ecuadorian. We get a glimpse (and a sample!) of traditional El Salvadorian fare. We marvel at brilliant images of borrowers in their element in Chile and Colombia. And finally we depart Latin America for Senegal, where a Latin phrase can teach us about entrepreneurs the world over: they can, because they think they can. And they do, just as soon as they have the capital to do it.
Continue Reading 29 August 2011 at 02:00 Kate Bennett 8 comments
Everything is sweeter in El Salvador
By Andrea Ramirez, KF16, El Salvador
Pastries in Usulutan, near one of the offices of Fundacion Campo
During each of the meals I’ve had here in San Miguel thus far, I’ve noticed something fascinating: everything seems to be sweeter in El Salvador. I started noticing this during breakfast, when I tried the orange juice — which is so sweet that could be considered dessert. I can tell it is natural orange juice, but whether or not it has sugar added is yet to be determined. I also noticed that the chocolate flavored cereal that I usually eat at home, is particularly chocolat-ier. The coffee is not even bitter, so no need for sugar. The quantity of sweet breads and pastries available is astounding. They are incredibly addicting and can be found everywhere.
Continue Reading 28 August 2011 at 09:00 Andrea Ramirez 7 comments
Possunt quia posse videntur
In this post, Kiva Fellow Tim Young, fortiter in re, suaviter in modo, shares some observations from a Fellow’s work in the field.
Continue Reading 25 August 2011 at 10:18 letimyoung 4 comments
Loan Sharks, Microloans and the Highest Interest Rates Around (they aren’t on Kiva)
Small business owners like Marcia Suqui in Cuenca, Ecuador use their microloans to move forward with their businesses and improve their quality of life. Which is terrific news, because afterall this is the idea driving Kiva: small loans can change lives. But not all small loans can improve a business owner’s standing, because the darker side of the “little loan” market in Ecuador is dominated by loan sharks. Taking a loan out from a chulco, Marcia explains, is actually taking few steps backward…
Continue Reading 24 August 2011 at 08:51 Kate Bennett 5 comments
The Top 10: My favorite borrower photos from Colombia and Chile
Kiva Fellows come from a vast variety of backgrounds, both in regards to their professional experience and hobbies. When the Kiva Fellows Program Team is trying to decide where to send people they try to decide what MFIs would benefit most from that fellow’s individual experience, and also what special projects they can work on to benefit Kiva’s mission and/or the MFI. As part of my fellowship i was asked to help add to Kiva’s library of borrower images, which are used for marketing and communications purposes by Kiva. With camera in hand I have set out to take some simple portraits of clients in their homes and businesses. Here are 10 of my favorite from both Chile and Colombia, hope you enjoy them!
Continue Reading 23 August 2011 at 11:39 JohnGwillim 7 comments
One Dollar Per Day, A Beginner’s Guide (Part 2)
By Jason Jones, Kiva Fellow (Nicaragua)
This is the second in a two-part series. To read Part 1, please follow this link.
……..So what does a life based upon one dollar (or 1 and a quarter or two) per day really look like? That’s mainly what I ask myself. Beyond that, how does one go about living on one dollar per day? Could I personally live on one or two dollars per day? In all fairness, I should probably say that I’ve never actually tried, nor do I have any real desire to do so (I suspect I’m not alone on that one). I mean I do try to keep things relatively “simple” on the average. I go from point A to point B on two wheels rather than four. I afford myself very few “luxuries” such as new clothes or cutting edge electronic devices (nope, no smart phone for this guy. Mine is ignorant at best). Come to think of it, I’ve all but stopped going to any restaurant that charges more than four or five dollars per entree. But despite such “drastic approaches” to life, even my modest rent of two dollars and fifty cents per day automatically disqualifies me from the official dollar per day club. Throw in another five or so for food, one for gas and another for such things as phone and internet, and I’m not even close to the cutoff. Based upon those numbers alone, I’m living a life of luxury.
According to most statistics, however, nearly half the population of Nicaragua IS living on less than two dollars per day. How do they do that? What does that actually look like? (taken from Part 1)……..
Continue Reading 17 August 2011 at 08:00 Jason Jones 3 comments
Update from the Field: Cooking Classes, Autarky + Social Performance
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo
This week on the Kiva fellows blog, take a cooking class with a Kiva borrower in Ecuador and learn how to make two mouthwatering local specialties: quimbalitos and tamales. Continue on to Sierra Leone to see how autarky is the goal of Kiva fellowships as well as micro loans. Then return to Ecuador to watch a video about traditional dances, find out about the feeling of “saudade” and reflect on the juxtaposition of poverty and prosperity. Finally, learn how a social performance study can be constructed in Chile.
Continue Reading 15 August 2011 at 05:52 Kathrin Gerner 3 comments
Here at the End
By Megan Bond, KF15, Ecuador
My Kiva Fellowship is coming to an end. I will leave Ibarra and travel to Quito. An overnight flight will bring me to Atlanta and, finally, another flight will carry me to Dallas where I will resume my pre-Kiva Fellowship life. In less than two weeks, I’ll be back at Southern Methodist University, located in one of the most privileged neighborhoods in the city of Dallas. The juxtaposition of poverty and incredible prosperity I witness in my life is weighing on me as I think about my departure. I can find the lines between the so-called “haves” and the “have-nots” drawn heavily here in Ecuador and in my own US city where economic segregation is a daily reality. How do I reconcile what I’ve seen this summer with the luxury and lives of excess I see at home? How am I going to feel when I pay more for a cup of coffee at the Atlanta airport than I do for an entire day of room-and-board in Ibarra? These are just personal examples that illustrate an internal dilemma that many people, aware of the world’s most pressing issues yet not experiencing them, must comes to terms with. Where do I fit within all of this? And, the question I learned to pose when I was a student in college, “what, therefore, should I do?” stands out in my mind. What will I do with this knowledge and experience?
Continue Reading 14 August 2011 at 08:00 Megan Bond 3 comments
Saudades
Yesterday, as I left the office of FODEMI for the final time I felt as if I could not find the words to describe what I was feeling. Both the English and the Spanish languages had failed to provide me with a word that could capture the feeling of happiness and sadness that coexisted rather uncomfortably. There have been some serious ups-and-downs in my summer as a Kiva Fellow in Ecuador. I felt inspired and happy when I met some incredible Kiva borrowers, including an entrepreneur that I had helped fund. But, at other times, I felt frustrated or homesick or like an outsider in the organization and in life in this new country. Sometimes these opposite emotions happened in closer proximity that I’d like to admit. Yet, as I walked down the sidewalk in Ibarra, I wondered about these feelings and struggled to come to terms with how I felt. Was I happy? Yes. Was I sad? Yes!
Continue Reading 13 August 2011 at 23:00 Megan Bond 6 comments
Measuring Social Performance
How should a microfinance institution (MFI) measure performance? Should they focus solely on the most common method, financial performance, or are things like client retentions rates and social indicators also important? While traditional financial indicators, like client repayment rate, are important in a drive to create a sustainable MFI, they do not measure the entire success of an MFI. Even client retention is not a perfect measure; are clients continuing to use services because they are good, or driven to by necessity to make payments on spiraling indebtedness? Measuring social performance, or looking at how a MFI is translating their social mission into a reality, is also key in determining if the loans they give to their clients are really having a positive impact on their lives. Fondo Esperanza (FE) recently partnered with Santiago, Chile based Universidad Alberto Hurtado to do just that: study the effects on the lives of FE borrowers from the microfinance services they receive.
Continue Reading 12 August 2011 at 14:22 JohnGwillim 1 comment
Video Blog: For the Love of Fiestas
By Megan Bond, KF15, Ecuador
Music, parades, disguises, fabulous street vendors, dancing in the streets, dancing in the fields, dancing wherever you feel like it – the Ecuadorians I’ve met love a good party and there’s nothing like a traditional fiesta to generate the right mood for all of the above. Fiestas have been a great opportunity for me to join in and have fun with the locals. Villages and towns all over have their own festivals days and there are certain times a year when the entire country is celebrating.
Continue Reading 12 August 2011 at 08:00 Megan Bond 2 comments
Of Autarky, Redundancy, and Giving
By Eric Rindal – KF15 – Sierra Leone
“Soon you’re not going to be here anymore, and I need to start doing things for myself,” Mbalu, the Kiva Coordinator at BRAC SL, earnestly said to me. One of my main objectives here in Sierra Leone has been to finalize Mbalu’s orientation of writing the Kiva borrower profiles, posting profiles to Kiva.org, and reporting borrower repayments to Kiva headquarters. With a great sense of accomplishment, last month was Mbalu’s first time posting borrowers onto Kiva.org without any
Teaching Mbalu how to post loans
assistance. Her statement toward independence hit me with a little bit of sadness and a full punch of reality as I was reminded of my temporary presence. However, within this, I encountered a paradigm-shifting question, “what will happen tomorrow?”
Ana’s Kitchen: How to Make a Tamale (or a Hundred)
“The stove, the gas, the vegetables, the meat, the pots, and tools, clean water… I have a lot of expenses in my business.” Not to mention the considerable time and energy that Doña Ana Victoria expends making a batch of her delicious tamales. Though she has many costs, Ana makes a fairly steady stream of profits from her market stall. To cover certain start-up costs and her side-business raising pigs, Ana has been lending from Kiva’s Field Partner Fundación ESPOIR for years.
Like most women in Ecuador, Ana Victoria learned how to cook from her mother, who learned it from her mother, and so on. But from here, Ana Victoria is a departure from the norm…
Continue Reading 10 August 2011 at 08:57 Kate Bennett 1 comment
Update from the Field: Motorcycles, Ramadan + A Dollar a Day
This week in the field, Fellows share some candid insights on life and microcredit in-country. You can ride on Carolyn’s motorcycle in Rwanda; pass through impoverished neighborhoods of Managua, Nicaragua; measure the impact of Ramadan on a nation’s micro-enterprises; take a look at the real inter-workings of a “needs test” in Cameroon, and begin to explain what “microfinance” is in Lebanon, or anywhere for that matter. Fellows teach us that whether life moves fast or slow (or maybe feels as though it’s been put on ‘pause’) micro-businesses are alive, alert and moving forward.
Continue Reading 8 August 2011 at 02:00 Kate Bennett 7 comments
One Dollar Per Day – A Beginner’s Guide (Part 1)
By Jason Jones, Kiva Fellow, Nicaragua
(This entry is the first in a two-part series. The second will be published in the coming week.)
I have a running debate with my girlfriend regarding the Nicaraguan class system. Usually, it comes up as we’re driving around Managua. We’ll be cruising around a particular neighborhood when one of us will begin speculating as to the economic classification of the area, based solely upon its outward appearance. For example, I always claim that the neighborhood I currently call home is “middle class”, basing my assessment on such factors as select individuals owning their own vehicles, most houses having non-dirt floors, and in the majority of cases, at least one family member finding him/herself with the luxury of reporting to work on a daily basis. My girlfriend, on the other hand, looks around at the number of individuals sleeping on the sidewalk at any given moment or the neighborhood’s reputation for being especially high in crime and subsequently assigns it a rating of “upper lower class”. Of course, being as though neither of our respective opinions is actually based upon any real economic study or indicator, we are probably both wrong. That being the case, however, I continually find myself speculating about such things, especially when I hear someone use that well-known phrase of “One Dollar Per Day”.
It’s difficult to get very deep into any poverty-related discussion these days without this phrase making an appearance. It’s cited in anti-poverty campaigns all over the world, it’s touted by numerous celebrities and spokespersons, it makes its way into most studies of the official variety and it’s even listed in the FIRST objective of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. One dollar per day. There it is. Sometimes, it’s listed as “A dollar twenty-five per day” or “Two dollars per day”, and the scale can certainly change depending on the source. What remains consistent, though, is the idea. And in this case, the idea is really just a tool by which to measure one’s economic activity.
So what does a life based upon one dollar (or one and a quarter or two) per day really look like? That’s mainly what I ask myself. Beyond that, how does one go about living on one dollar per day? Could I personally live on one or two dollars per day? In all fairness, I should probably mention that I’ve never actually tried, nor do I have any real desire to do so (I suspect I’m not alone on that one). I mean I do try to keep things relatively “simple” on the average. I go from point A to point B on two wheels rather than four. I afford myself very few “luxuries” such as new clothes or cutting edge electronic devices (nope, no smart phone for this guy…..mine is ignorant at best). Come to think of it, I’ve all but stopped going to any restaurant that charges more than four or five dollars per entrée. But despite such “drastic approaches” to life, even my modest rent of two dollars and fifty cents per day automatically disqualifies me from the official dollar per day club. Throw in another five or so for food, one for gas and another for such things as phone and internet, and I’m not even close to the cutoff. Based upon those numbers alone, I’m living a life of luxury.
Continue Reading 6 August 2011 at 07:00 Jason Jones 5 comments
Too Crude? Or, Just Reality.
Common Latrine in Northwest Cameroon
This photo may not be recognized immediately as a toilet, bathroom, or water closet. Or, it may be considered indecent for publishing on a civilized blog such as the Kiva Fellows Blog. Justifiably, blogs typically highlight the hardworking entrepreneurs who are fighting poverty. But in the interest of connecting Kiva lenders and blog readers to the true lives of Kiva and GHAPE borrowers, I have decided to share an image that many lenders and blog readers may have never seen.
Continue Reading 5 August 2011 at 14:29 faithgarlington 2 comments
Kigali Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-OuMj51YVI
Hi Everyone! Decided to make a Video blog post to show you a little bit what life is like as a Kiva Fellow in Kigali!
“What do I do here in Lebanon?” you ask
“What do I do here in Lebanon?” people ask me all the time. I usually struggle a bit; I take a deep breath and I start explaining what micro-credit and micro-finance is. I tend to throw in words like: “lack of access to the banking system”, “Mohamed Yunus” and “giving the poor financial stability”. But even after a little bit of explaining, I still don’t know if I’m getting the point across. And I often find that when I say “loan” people immediately ask “How can I get one for my business?” So, I turned to Al Majmoua to see how local Microfinance Institution (MFI) in Lebanon is addressing this on a daily basis?
Continue Reading 3 August 2011 at 10:00 Heba Gamal 3 comments
Ramadan Kareem from the Middle East!
By Amy Kyleen Lute – KF15, Jordan
Today, August 1st, is the first day of Ramadan! For the next month, Muslims across the world will be fasting – letting nothing pass through their lips – from sunrise to sunset. Though I’ve spent a decent amount of time in the Arab world, this is my first experience of Ramadan living in a Muslim country.
Ramadan, for people here, means many things. For some it is a welcomed change of routine, more time with family and an opportunity to be continually reminded of their dependence on God. For most it is not an option. (It is actually illegal – though not thoroughly enforced – for shops to allow patrons to eat publicly during the day.) I’m not sure there is anything more foreign to Westerners accustomed to secular society than an entire population – the nerds, the bros, the liberals, the loyalists, the wealthy, the poor, the players, the educated, the spiritually indifferent – to participate in a religious custom; for religious adherence to be the norm. Though for some participants, I suspect, it doesn’t necessarily have as much of a religious impetus as we might assume given our secular and cultural bias. Here, actively participating in Ramadan may not engender theological discussions or denote particular piety, it may come out of a simpler, more community-oriented mindset that, as Muslims, during Ramadan, this is how we act.
For Kiva borrowers, life is altered in similar ways as the rest of the society. Their loan repayments are still due, though many of their businesses are closed or, more likely, operate on restricted hours – beginning later in the day and closing earlier in the afternoon with some, depending on the type of business, reopening late into the night to try to capture some additional action surrounding iftar, the breaking of the fast after sundown. Profits for small businesses and shops vary: for some business suffers from the decrease in out-of-home activities and for others Ramadan is a highly profitable month due to the nightly celebrations of family and food. During my work with KIEDF, an Israeli microfinance institution serving mostly Arab, Muslim clients, they explained that many borrowers will make two payments the month before Ramadan so they don’t have to pay during the Holy Month. It is also normal for microfinance institutions to be more lenient about early and late payments this month. For clients of Tamweelcom, another Kiva Field Partner in Jordan, clients have additional incentive to pursue good standing with their MFI. As part of their social mission, nearly 170 high-achieving clients were selected to celebrate the beginning of Ramadan with an all-expenses-paid trip to do Umrah, a pilgrimage to Mecca similar to Hajj except that it can be done at any point throughout the year.
For me, besides making it more difficult to find a taxi and virtually impossible to eat out or in public during the day, Ramadan is going to be a fascinating window into the lives of a few of the hundreds of Muslim Kiva borrowers in Jordan. I have many field visits scheduled in these next couple of weeks, which I anticipate will be somewhat hindered but simultaneously enhanced by customs of the Holy Month. My experience and understanding of the Jordanian people, Kiva borrowers and friends who are partaking in this dramatic routine-altering tradition wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t participate – even if only for a day – in solidarity with my current community. Thus far I have only been refraining – not really by choice – from things that are hard to open and difficult to eat as I recently fractured both of my wrists and now have huge casts on both arms limiting my digital mobility! I suspect this new intention, while potentially including similar frustrations, will shift my ever-changing perspective. I am excited to separate and combine sacrifice with celebration in communion with so many others doing the same.
Update from the Field: Working Animals, Green Microfinance + The Ends of the Earth
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo
This week, learn how microfinance could help working animals and their wild cousins in Senegal. Find out more about pigs in Indonesia and how pig waste can be put to good use with biogas digesters. Then understand more about the infrastructure difficulties facing a Kiva partner in Sierra Leone.
Continue Reading 1 August 2011 at 02:00 Kathrin Gerner 6 comments
On the road again: Borrower visits throughout Southern Uganda
By Michele Wehle, KF15, Uganda
Two weeks ago I set off bright and early to the bus park in Kampala to catch my six hour bus to Ibanda, Uganda. My objective was to meet five Kiva borrowers around Southern and Western Uganda in order to complete my Borrower Verification. I gave myself five days and several pep talks to complete the journey. Pep talks and prayers were a prerequisite for my adventure as I would be traveling solo to some places that weren’t even on Google Maps (unprecedented). I didn’t know how I would eventually reach some areas and had no idea where I would sleep half the time, but none of this mattered as I only had one goal – meet those borrowers!
Continue Reading 1 August 2011 at 01:48 Michele Wehle 1 comment
