Author Archive
What is your Dream?
What is your dream for your future? As a Kiva Fellow living in Puno, Peru, writing journals for Kiva and Manuela Ramos entrepreneurs, this is a question I have asked approximately 150 women. Over the last three and a half months, one of my main responsibilities as a fellow has been to meet the entrepreneurs of Manuela Ramos who have been funded through Kiva and to write journals about their lives, their businesses and the loans that help them succeed in these businesses. In order to gather the information needed to write these journals, I travel to bank meetings or to the entrepreneur’s homes and ask them a series of questions: How long have you been with Manuela Ramos? Do you think that the loans from Manuela Ramos have helped your business? What successes or problems have you recently faced? Because many of the women entrepreneurs conduct similar businesses, their answers to these questions are often the same. However, the question that provokes the same response more than any other is “What is your dream for the future”.
The Value of the Community Bank
Some of you may be aware of the definition of the Community, or Village, Bank and the role it plays in many Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). For those of you who are not familiar with the concept, I’d like to offer a brief history of the Community Bank and it’s function in Manuela Ramos, an MFI and women’s movement in Peru. Although community banks operate differently in distinct countries and MFIs, the origin of the community bank and it’s general functions are usually the same regardless of the place of operation.
The idea of the Community Bank originated with the development of the first MFI, the Grameen Bank, in the early 1980s. Muhammad Yunus, and economists from Bangladesh, saw a great need for small loans to become available for the working poor in his country. Like any bank that provides loans, this bank needed a guarantee from the borrowers that the loans would be repaid. This guarantee could not come in the form of collateral, such as a house or automobile, because the borrowers, for the most part, had no collateral to offer. Therefore, in order to ensure the bankers that the loans would be repaid, Muhammad Yunus developed the concept of the Village, or Community, Bank, where groups of people from the same village would come together and take out a group loan to be used for individual businesses. In this way, the group members support each other in the development of their individual businesses and guarantee that each member will repay his or her loan. Over the last 30 years as MFIs have started in much of the developing world, the practice of Community Banking has spread and been adapted to fit the needs of the specific MFIs.
Volley Ball, Skirts and Celebration!
As if volleyball and soccer were not challenging enough, imagine playing these sports in long skirts, dress shoes and traditional hats that barely stay on your head in the slightest wind. I have been to and played in sports tournaments my entire life, but until last week I had never experienced a tournament like this!
As a Kiva Fellow working with the Microfinance Institution (MFI), Manuela Ramos, I have the privilege of attending not only community bank meetings, where groups of women come together to take out small loans, but also community events that are meant to empower women, spread the word about Peru’s women’s rights movement, in which Manuela Ramos plays a large role, and show the women a great time! Every year, Manuela Ramos puts on as many as eight events in the different zones where they work; sometimes these events afford the women entrepreneurs the opportunity to sell their goods, sometimes they are educational and teach the women how to effectively run their small businesses, and sometimes they involve the playing of sports. Above all, these events encourage camaraderie and self-esteem amongst the women.
The morning started early, with a 4 am wake up call followed by a three-hour, multi bus journey to Lampa, Peru where ten loan officers and I fumbled and laughed our way through the set up of the volley ball court and soccer nets. The fact that I’m about five inches taller than the next tallest woman made me very popular when it came to propping up tents and hanging signs! The women entrepreneurs began to arrive around 8 am and by 9:30 the ceremony began. Dressed in their team shirts and proudly holding their banners, which displayed their community bank names, the women lined up in rows. With a borrowed microphone, the loan officers of Manuela Ramos recognized individuals who had demonstrated excellence amongst their fellow bank members. After singing the Peruvian national anthem, the women and the loan officers ran around the paved court and the games began!
As the community banks participated in the sports, the other women watched, cheered, and took advantage of the local hospital offering of free HIV tests and $.50 women exams, a service that Manuela Ramos set up for the community. After approximately four hours of games, the day concluded around 2 pm, with a large lunch of chicken and potatoes, an Andean favorite, and a closing ceremony where the loan officers played the Manuela Ramos theme song, which is reminiscent of a 1992 Celine Dion hit. The women seemed to truly enjoy themselves, and the event undoubtedly fostered camaraderie among the women in the community banks and made women in the area, who stopped to watch, interested in being a part of Manuela Ramos and all the fun!
Emily Sweeney is a Kiva Fellow, living in Puno, Peru. She has been working with the Microfinance Institution, Manuela Ramos, for three months.
Lake Titicaca and the Floating Islands
After almost two months living in Puno, Peru and after a few embarrassing moments when tourists I encountered asked me for advice about visiting Lake Titicaca and I had to sheepishly admit that I hadn’t yet embarked, I decided it was time to make the trip. In my defense, I had been waiting for the rainy season to pass and for someone to go with. Luckily, last weekend both my prerequisites were met.
Through a Kiva connection, I met a fellow microfinance worker, Zoe, who was conducting surveys on microfinance interest rates in Puno. In the good and admittedly much needed company of a fellow expat, I set out at 6 am on a tour boat for the floating islands of Los Uros. Although the translation of the name obviously implies that the islands are floating in the lake, I thought that this was surely just an expression, or perhaps a mistranslation; I was wrong!
Thousands of years ago, out of necessity, the Uros tribe began creating islands off the coast of Puno. The people of Los Uros create the islands using land that they cut away from the shore of the mainland. In order to maintain the islands, layers of reeds must constantly be added on top of those that are beginning to rot. Using large stakes, the islands are anchored in the lake and in order to move the islands the inhabitants simply need to remove the stakes and push the islands with their reed boats. Originally, the idea of the floating island was devised as a defense mechanism against the Aymara tribe, and later against the Incas. Today, the islands are safe and are rarely moved to new locations along the lake. Although many of the inhabitants of Los Uros have moved to the mainland, about 70 of these islands remain inhabited, with each community consisting of between four and 16 families. Although the islands themselves are small, the community of islands makes up a rather large population of people who work together in business and culture. Children travel to nearby islands where teachers provide both primary and secondary education and the island’s inhabitants work with Puno’s tour agencies to ensure that every island benefits equally from the prominent tourist industry.
Docking at one of the islands and being cheerily greeted in the local language of Aymara, Zoe and I explored the approximately 1,000 square foot island, which was just a bit larger than my old apartment in San Francisco. Perhaps even more surprising than the fact that these islands actually float, was seeing the juxtaposition of modern technology and an ancient culture. Looking up at the metallic structures on top of each of the nine thatched roofs I thought, “these can’t be what I think they are”, but again, I was wrong (an ongoing theme!). The tour guide explained that almost all the islands of Los Uros are powered using solar technology. Adding to the islands “green theme”, the guide also informed us that the boats these communities use to travel from island to island are made using used plastic water bottles, which are placed inside the woven reeds and act as floatation devices. As I watched a small girl in the local dress of a top hat and large skirt pop in a CD for us visitors to enjoy, I marveled at the reaches of globalization.
After returning to the mainland and going to the office on Monday morning, I let the loan officers of the Microfinance Institution (MFI), Manuela Ramos, where I’ve been volunteering, know that I finally made it out on the lake. They asked me if I bought any artesian arts and crafts and informed me that many of these artesian workers are entrepreneurs of Manuela Ramos and are part of community banks that take out loans in order to buy supplies in bulk in Puno and increase their profits. After seeing the solar panels and the impressive organization of the community of islands, I wasn’t surprised and was certainly pleased that microfinance too had found a way to merge with the culture of Los Uros.
Are you My Entrepreneur?
As a Kiva Fellow volunteering for a Microfinance Institution (MFI) in Puno, Peru, one of my responsibilities is to interview women entrepreneurs who have received loans from the MFI, Manuela Ramos, and Kiva. During the interview the goal is to obtain their photos, learn how the woman used the loan, and gather more information about her life – her hopes, dreams and hardships. With this information I can, and other fellows and MFI employees can, provide a follow up to the people who have made loans to these entrepreneurs through Kiva’s website, creating a stronger connection between the lender and the borrower, who are living, for the most part, on opposite sides of the world. While I truly believe that the journaling process is vital to Kiva’s values of transparency and fostering connections, until I arrived in the field and took my first trip to conduct interviews I had no idea how challenging this process could be!
Do you remember the children’s story, “Are you my Mother?”, that follows a freshly hatched, lost baby chick on it’s quest to find it’s mother (I believe it was mandatory reading to obtain your kindergarten diploma)? The chick begins it’s journey by asking animals, “Are you my mother?” and after a series of defeats, eventually results to asking inanimate objects, until finally a power shovel delivers it safely home. As I stepped out of the “condi” (a small bus that resembles the old VW vans that were once so popular in the U.S) I couldn’t help but feel like this wide-eyed baby chick – a little lost, a bit confused and highly ambitious in my seeking. Staring down at my “address” list, which contained districts, but no actual streets or numbers of the entrepreneurs’ residence, I rolled up my jeans and started hiking up the hill.
Like the baby chick who begins it’s journey in a somewhat guarded manner by asking similar looking animals, “Are you my mother?”, I looked through the poor quality, black and white photos of the entrepreneurs I was meant to interview and the district map and decided to walk through the town in search of these women. When I saw a woman who resembled one from the photos I would simply ask, “Are you my Entrepreneur?”, a practical approach in theory, but, as I would soon discover, not in reality.
Walking up the hill in the increasingly heavy rain, I encountered the first woman that I felt matched a photo I had in hand and, after a customary “Buenos días señora” asked, “Are you Paula Mamani de Sanizo?”. After her initial confusion, which I imagine stemmed from being approached by a strange looking, rather pale foreigner with a thick accent, she smiled and let me know that she was not this woman, but I could find Paula in the blue house up the road. She pointed up the road, which seemed to stretch for miles, directly up hill, and I smiled, thanked her for her help and set off.
As the haze of blue dots started to become structures with roofs and doors I decided that it was time to ask again, “Are you my entrepreneur?”, but this time, with wider search criteria. No longer relying on the photos for guidance, I began asking every woman I spotted if she was one of the women on my list, hoping that if she wasn’t, she might at least point me in the right direction. After a series of, “no, me disculpe señoritas” I broadened my search yet again to include inquiring to any moving object. Just as I was getting really discouraged the rain subsided and I saw a young boy on the side of the road. Although he resembled the women in my photos as much as the power shovel resembled the baby chick’s mother, I resolved to not give up. Changing my question to, “Do you know my entrepreneur?”, I approached the boy. Not only did he know one of the entrepreneurs, but one of the women was his grandmother and another his grandmother’s sister, who both happened to be peeling potatoes behind the house we stood in front of. Just like the power shovel, albeit a bit cuter, he took me by the hand and delivered me safely to two of the entrepreneurs. As I basked in the brightening sun and spoke with the women about their loans, their families and their dreams for their children, I knew this experience was well worth the difficult journey. My day unfolded in this fashion, until I had interviewed over half of the women on my list and decided it was time to let the condi deliver me back to Puno.
The following day when I arrived at the office, I asked the Kiva coordinator, who is an employee of Manuela Ramos and is in charge of posting the borrower profiles to Kiva’s site, if my experience was standard. She replied that although my day sounded a bit more chaotic than normal, as the town I visited is one of the most rural on Manuela Ramos’s list, it can be very difficult to find an entrepreneur outside of the loan officer’s bank meetings, where 12-30 women in the same community bank come together once a month to take out and pay back loans. So why doesn’t she simply go to the loan officer’s bank meetings where all the women are together? Because a picture is worth a thousand words (or at least $25 minimum loan!) and the photos on Kiva’s website that are taken of the women in their place of business, which is often their home as well, is what Kiva lenders have repeatedly indicated is what they want to see. While going to the community bank meetings assures that the women will be present, it doesn’t allow their photos to be taken in their individual places of business. As my work here consists mostly of writing journals, not borrower profiles, which are the initial descriptions and photos of the women who are requesting a loan, I will be able to visit some bank meetings to conduct interviews because the importance of the photo carries less weight. However, the Kiva coordinators who are in charge of posting borrower profiles in Manuela Ramos’ seven branches throughout Peru will continue conducting their interviews by traveling to the entrepreneurs’ towns and, with or without exact addresses, attempting to find the women in their homes and businesses.
So what did my experience teach me? First, although Kiva provides interest free capital, the funds don’t come without some work on the MFI’s behalf. Conducting a cost/benefit analysis of Kiva for Manuela Ramos is actually one of my projects as a Kiva Fellow and one that I will take very seriously! Second, a plastic bag can act as a rain hat, a protective cover for your documents and a small blanket to sit upon when necessary. And last, with a little embarrassment, a lot of persistence, and the help of others, just like the baby chick you will find your way.
Manuela Ramos: Beyond Microfinance
Upon learning that I had been accepted as a Kiva Fellow and would be heading to Peru to work with a microfinance institution (MFI) on Kiva’s behalf, I had no idea that the organization with which I would be working would be much more than a bank that provides microloans.
Manuela Ramos is an organization that was founded in Peru in 1978 and is dedicated to the implementation of programs and projects that advance the rights of Peruvian women. They have more than ten offices throughout Peru and seven of those are operating with a microfinance program. Their programs include educating women, primarily in the rural areas of Peru, about gender equality, domestic violence, women’s rights and environmental awareness. Twelve years ago, Manuela adopted a Microfinance program, CrediMujer, that assists groups of 15-30 women in coming together, forming a community bank and taking out a loan together that they use for their individual businesses; this is where Kiva comes in, providing interest free capital for Manuela Ramos to loan. These community banks allow women to work together in idea building and sharing, create accountability to repay the loan (if one women defaults then the entire community bank defaults and no woman in this bank may take out another loan) and enable the organization to work more efficiently (the loan officers make visits to the community bank meetings rather than each individuals place of business).
Microfinance is a successful tool used by Manuela Ramos in order to further its mission of women’s progress, but it is just one tool. I was lucky enough to have my first day on the job coincide with the implementation of a women’s rights program against gender, domestic and sexual violence that until two weeks ago only existed in Lima. For the inauguration of this program, the director of Manuela Ramos and the directors of this program visited Puno and gave a heart felt presentation in the Community Center and sited disturbing facts and statistics that exemplified the propose behind their movement. Currently in Peru, it is much less common for women to have ID cards than men. This lack of identification leaves women unable to take out loans, receive a higher education and leads to lack of independence. In addition, while boys are required to attend primary and secondary school, girls are not and the decision is left to the parents, leaving many women without the ability to read or write and unable to rise above this oppression.
After the Community presentation I had the privilege of attending a meeting where the directors of this program, “Violencia Familiar”, spoke in depth to the women of Manuela Ramos. It was amazing to be a part of what feels like a momentous movement to change the position of Peruvian women. The directors spoke about the unequal balance of power between men and women and how this leads to gender, physical and sexual abuse. Many of the victims of this abuse have nowhere to go, as this behavior may be accepted by their priests, teachers and maybe even their own mothers. Manuela Ramos not only wants to provide an outlet for these women to seek help by providing self-esteem workshops and community assistance, but wants to speak out in the community to let people know, both men and women, that this behavior needs to change. When a Manuela Ramos employee states where she works, she doesn’t say she works for Manuela Ramos, she proudly states that she works for the Manuela Ramos Movement that is changing the face of women in Peru.
