Author Archive
More hot topics in Ecuador
By Ellen Willems, KF13, Ecuador
Last week I finished my Kiva Fellowship in Ecuador. During the past three months I traveled throughout the country to work at Kiva’s three Ecuadorian field partners. I believe that now, at the end of my Fellowship, is a good time to refer back to my first blog entry and, using my personal experiences, reflect on some of the topics mentioned there.
These reflections represent only my personal experiences and should by no means be considered anything more than that. I realize that my experiences are based on a relatively short stay in Ecuador and are limited to only three of the more than 300 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) active in the country.
Roller coaster bus rides in Guayaquil
By Ellen Willems, KF13, Ecuador
Riding a bus in Guayaquil can be pretty crazy, even scary sometimes. Cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, everybody fights for his place in the street. And on top of that the buses fight for passengers.
The bus drivers don’t own the buses; they pay about $100/day to use them. The driver’s income depends on the number of passengers he picks up, so when two buses of the same line meet, the race is on and the already pretty crazy bus ride turns into a scary roller coaster ride.
No road too muddy for a dedicated loan officer.
By Ellen Willems, KF13, Ecuador.
Ecuador has only two seasons: summer or dry season and winter or wet season. Right now it is winter and it rains almost every day. For the loan officers at Cooperativa San José this rain equals mud and a lot of it. To meet the poorest and most remote borrowers these loan officers spend many challenging hours on their motorcycles navigating bad roads, and, on rainy days, getting wet and covered in mud.
They do this to meet with the members of the “Ventanillas Rurales” (Village Banks). This is a special loan product Cooperativa San José offers to the most remote rural communities. These Village Banks consist of 10 to 30 members and serve as solidarity groups. The loans they take out are relatively small, starting from $600. The loan terms are adjusted to the agricultural needs of the borrowers: the loan cycles vary from 9 to 14 months and the principal is due at the end of the loan term. This way the borrower can buy seeds and fertilizers today and pay back in one year after having sold his/her produce. The most common crops grown are cocoa, corn, yucca, rice, orange, passion fruit and pineapple.
Eruptions, flooding and Monopoly
By Ellen Willems, KF13, Ecuador
On November 22nd the Tungurahua volcano, located in the central mountains of Ecuador, started to expel ashes and on December 4th a major eruption forced the farmers living in the area to leave. The Tungurahua volcano (Tungurahua meaning “throat of fire” in Quichua) has been active since 1999. Aurélie Dagneaux, a previous Kiva Fellow working at Cooperativa San José, wrote an interesting blog entry on the consequences of this activity for the people living and working in the affected areas. Many of KIVA’s field partners combine the financial products they provide with non financial services in order to improve the general wellbeing of their clients.
Prohibition during Ecuador’s census weekend.
By Ellen Willems, KF13, Ecuador
Ecuadorians who dare going out onto the public street this Sunday November 28th or who risk drinking alcoholic beverages between Saturday 27th and Monday 29th face sanctions ranging from two to four days in prison or fines from $7 to $15.
The reason for these measurements is the 7th Ecuadorian Census conducted by the Ecuadorian Institute for Statistics and Census (INEC) on Sunday November 28th between 7am and 5pm.
Hot Topics in Ecuador
Earlier this year, in April, MFTransparency.org, an international non-governmental organization committed to pricing transparency, launched its Transparent Pricing Initiative in Latin America. The data collected in Ecuador will be presented during a conference in Quito on November 30th. Awaiting this event, let us look at the laws and regulations currently in effect in Ecuador.
