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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!
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.
Faces from the field: A day of visits and photos from Chile
Early this week I had to the opportunity to go out into the field with Kiva staff member Nicolas Lafaye (Portfolio Manager for South America) as he visited Fondo Esperanza in Santiago, Chile. This day gave me the opportunity to focus on two of my favorite parts of being a Kiva Fellow: talking with clients and taking photos. With camera in hand we headed out to two communities in the Santiago area, visited clients in their homes and businesses, and attended a Communal Bank meeting. Here are 3 of my favorite photos from the day, as well as some of what I learned about their businesses from the clients.
Communal banks? Why not just an individual loan?
by John Gwillim, KF 15, Chile
This is the question I asked myself as I arrived in May at Fondo Esperanza (FE). After spending 3 months working with Fundación Mario Santo Domingo (FMSD) in Barranquilla, Colombia as part of KF14, I saw first hand how successful individual loans could be in helping people start and grow their own businesses. FMSD had used group lending in the past (and still has a small number of group loans), but found individual loans worked better for their clientele. Fast forward to my arrival at FE in Santiago, Chile: FE dropped individual loans in favor of communal banks about 9 years ago and is just considering individual loans again. The difference in the methodology intrigued me, so I had to do some research and find out more.
Colombia: Lose your perception of the past and come visit!
Ever since I first visited Colombia in 2007 up until today I constantly get asked one question over and over: “is it safe in Colombia?” After spending nearly 4 months I almost laugh as I have had zero issues, yet I have to take a step back and think about my perception of the country before I first visited. What was “that” Colombia in my mind? How many Colombians could I name? Shakira, Pablo Escobar, and Juan Valdez–the third being a fictitious character I remember from the Colombian coffee commercials of my childhood. How about the rest of the country? My mind would instantly focus in on the narcotics trade, violence, paramilitary groups, the FARC; after that, coffee and bananas. Why would I want to visit Colombia? After spending time here a part of me wants to scream to the world “come!!!!!!!” The people, the culture, the natural beauty–I can keep going on and on. The other side of me thinks I should keep my mouth shut and hide it for myself, but it is really too good to do that!
Conflict Generated Displacement and Microfinance: Helping People Build a New Life
Merys María Mejía Velasquez is always one of my favorite clients to see in the offices of Fundación Mario Santo Domingo (FMSD); I am always greeted with a huge and a warm welcome spewing with energy. Merys is a long time client of FMSD and has recently taken her first loan through Kiva to buy products to continue to expand her bakery. She enthusiastically attends the free workshops offered by FMSD and is constantly doing all she can to continue to grow her business. Unless you really got the chance to ask Merys about her history it is unlikely you would ever guess that she was displaced to Barranquilla by the violence of illegal, armed, far-right groups less than a decade ago, forced to restart her life from scratch.
Blast from the Past: KF7 turned microfinance professor visits Colombia to do field research
What happens to Kiva Fellows once they finish their placement and get released back into the world? This is a question I have asked myself many times as I look ahead beyond my placement in Colombia–luckily I will be part of KF15 and won’t have to make those decisions for a few months! Many of the current fellows will be heading to grad school in the fall, going back to their old jobs, or looking for new jobs in international development. But how many of us get the chance to continue on in the world of microfinance?
Photos from Carnival de Barranquilla
Forty days before Easter marks a grand occasion in many countries across the world – Carnival. We’re composing this blog during a couple of hours of well-needed downtime from the second largest of them all: Barranquilla, Colombia.
Outside of Carnival season Barranquilla is a relatively ordinary city which doesn’t tend to attract the throngs of tourists that flock to its beautiful coastal neighbours such as Cartagena and Santa Marta. However, for one long weekend of the year there is no more popular tourist attraction than Barranquilla. Hotels are booked out months in advance and the masses flood to town with just one thing on their mind – partying. As it happens, the locals start ‘preparing’ for Carnival about a month before the actual event with, well, more partying.
UNESCO hailed Barranquilla Carnival as one of the ‘Masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity’. Whatever on earth that means, it makes it sound fabulously impressive and so, from what I’ve witnessed so far, I’ll go along with it.
The focus of Carnival during the day are the numerous parades that take place around different parts of the city. These can be up to 5 or 6 hours long and feature a continuous stream of floats, dancers and performers strutting their moves in glorious waves of colour and mesmerizing patterns.
When the sun sets and the last of the performers reach the end of the road, the dancing baton is handed to the masses who assume their role with fervent gusto at street parties and open-air nightclubs across the city.
Carnival, while only being a few days long, provides a major boost to Barranquilla’s economy. Prices for food, drink and taxis are inflated but, in the spirit of things, no-one seems to mind. Importantly, Carnival is of great significance to small-scale entrepreneurs such as hat-makers, artisans and food-stall owners. It’s also an important time for Kiva Field Partner FMSD who provide loans to these entrepreneurs so that they can invest in stock to meet the high demand.
Amid a hazy but fantastic blur of dancing, costume, body paint, music, foam, corn flour and the odd Aguila beer, John managed to capture a few photos of this amazing spectacle. Enjoy!
Words by Nick Hamilton, photos by John Gwillim, KF14
Batalla de Flores - Saturday March 5, 2011
The first, and largest, parade of Carnival kicked off on Saturday afternoon.
Warming up before the parades starts
"Hugo Chávez" and "Simón Bolívar" spend some time together before the parade begins
Foam, water, beer, flour--I was covered in all of them while shooting during the parade route.
The crowds were massive! There was opening seating for free, as well as paid seating in chairs and grandstands. Some of the nicest VIP seating included waitstaff and food, but the seats were up to $250 each.
Parada Floclórica Carlos Franco – Sunday, March 6, 2011
A much smaller parade with a more community feel didn’t include the huge floats from Saturday’s parade, but was still very fun and highlighted some amazing costumes and dancing.
Stay tuned to the Fellows Blog this Wednesday to read about more carnival stories from Latina America!!!
John and Nick at the Batalla de Flores
Nick Hamilton is currently serving with Interactuar in Medellín, Colombia and John Gwillim is in Barranquilla, Colombia with Fundación Mario Santo Domingo (FMSD) as part of KF14.
Interested in learning more about Fundación Mario Santo Domingo? Visit their page on Kiva here!
Kiva Field Partners: More than just microfinance
Kiva’s mission, to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty, is implemented in the field by partnering with microfinance institutions around the world. All of Kiva’s Field Partners have a strong mission to alleviate poverty and expertise in doing so through the use of microcredit–they are the legs of Kiva that get the money loaned into the hands of the entrepreneurs. Yet, in many cases the projects and mission of our Field Partners expand beyond microfinance–they are dedicated to enriching the lives of their clients in many ways. A few examples from Kiva Field Partners across the world:
- The Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN) runs the Child Education Support Scheme, a child aid and development program that provides access to quality, basic education for needy children living in deprived rural communities in Ghana. CRAN also runs a program called Energy in Common that provides lighting for remote villages in Ghana, using the concepts of microfinance: it loans the equipment to villagers, who then pay back in installments.
- Fundacion Paraguaya runs a self-sufficient agricultural highschool; they focus on producing and selling organic vegetables, but also have cows and a small dairy plant. The school also own a small hotel that is rented mainly for private functions, work meetings, and seminars. All students work and live on-campus: the freshmen do most of the basic work, the juniors train the freshman and also working on specialized tasks, while the seniors serve as experts and supervisors. Depending on what each student chooses they can graduate with a single or dual-degree in agriculture and/or hotel management.
- FINCA Peru provides its members with training sessions on women’s rights and gender issues education. FINCA is part of the Women’s Empowerment Mainstreaming and Networking network (WEMAN), which aims to empower and improve vulnerable women’s lives, their families, and communities. Training is offered during weekly or biweekly bank meetings through dynamic and interactive programs that incorporate analysis, reflection and mutual learning to allow women to share their own experiences and change their attitudes and perceptions.
Here in Colombia Fundación Mario Santo Domingo’s (FMSD) work is focused not solely on microfinance, but the social development of Colombia as whole, as described by their mission statement:
To promote the common good and bring about social development on a national level through support for educational, cultural, charitable and health-related activities and programs, scientific and technological research, the creation of jobs and income, and all other activities that contribute to improving the quality of life of the general population, especially within the poorest communities.
FMSD has built a clinic, a ecological institute on Barú Island, and high schools for communities that likely would not have received any other form of help. The hold numerous workshops each week ranging for business seminars to programs designed to improve the communication of families within their homes. They have programs that offer street children better opportunities for their future, as well as programs designed to strengthen and maintain Colombian culture, such the events and costumes used as part of Barranquilla’s world famous carnival that will take place in 9 days.
Villas de San Pablo, Barranquilla, Colombia
One of FMSD’s largest and most ambitious projects is called Dreams and Opportunities, which is a program designed to construct strong communities with better housing options for poor families in Colombia. They have constructed over 14000 homes to daye, and in 2008 plans began for two large communities on the northern coast: Villas de San Pablo in Barranquilla and Ciudad del Bicentenario in Cartagena will housing 20,000 and 25,000 families respectively within the next decade. The homes receive approximately a 40% subsidy from the local and national government and require only 10% down for a family to move in; they are able to take out a 7-10 year loan at low interest rate that they would never be able to receive from a commercial lending source. FMSD does not only focus on building homes, but also a community surrounding them–playgrounds, parks, computer centers, and community areas are planned into the design from the beginning.
New, fully furnished home for the Alvarez family
Last Friday I had to opportunity to visit Villas de San Pablo for the dedication of a free house from FMSD for a family in need. The Alverez family used to live in very poor conditions and experienced a tragedy where they lost 4 of their 8 children in a fire in their previous home. FMSD worked with the national government and local Catholic church to provide a new, furnished home for the family. The family will now have an opportunity to start over in a new, safer home thanks in part to FMSD.
Belarmino "Oscar" Alvarez meets with Beatriz Uribe, Minister of Housing and Environment (equivalent to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the US government) during the presentation of their new home.
Projects such as Villas de San Pablo allow organizations like FMSD to assist people in many aspects of their lives, as well as tie back to their microfinance mission; loan officers are constantly reaching out to new residents to see if they would benefit from a loan to start or improve their current business.
Kiva’s Field Partners are doing much more than just providing loans, they are helping transform their communities and change people’s lives.
Interested in learning more about Fundación Mario Santo Domingo? Visit their page on Kiva here!
John Gwillim is a Kiva Fellow currently serving with Fundación Mario Santo Domingo (FMSD) in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Super Bowl Around the World
The Neilsen ratings haven’t been released for Super Bowl XLV yet, but from the early reports it may have been a record viewership in the United States with well over 100 million people tuning in. As a big American football fan I thought it would be fun to gather some stories about the interest (or lack thereof) in the Super Bowl from Kiva Fellows posted around the world. Here’s what we found!
Colombia
I purposely scheduled a two hour trip from Barranquilla to see some of Fundación Mario Santo Domingo’s projects in Cartagena this weekend as it is the epicenter of tourism in Colombia and I knew I would be able to find a few travelers to watch the game with. I spent two days asking for “sports bar recommendations” to watch “fútbol americano” and came up with quite a few places to watch English Premier League games, but nothing for the NFL. I gathered a group of Americans, Australians, and English and headed off to the most American place we could find: Hard Rock Cafe Cartagena. Upon walking in the door we saw a promotion for a free drink if you wear a jersey supporting you favorite team and upon further inspection I saw some black and gold balloons along with 4 Steelers shirts.
The crowd was leaning towards the Packers, lead by my group and some a table from Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The Steelers put up a good fight in the cheering section led by a Colombian woman from Bogotá that has been living in the US for the past 16 years. We even had a Hard Rock Cafe “cheerleading” team and the ability to buy some tasty hot wings. The biggest disappointment I gather from most fans; no US commercials, as the game was broadcast by the local ESPN outlet and we had local commercials. Overall, I think I got about as close as I could have to watching the game in the US from South America.
Hard Rock Cafe Cartagena, Colombia
I also decided to check the local newspaper, El Universal, this morning for any Super Bowl related articles; on the back page of section 1 I was pleasantly surprised.
El Universal, Section 1, Page 8
But, fútbol, or soccer for the Americas, still is king here after looking at the front page:
EL Universal, Page 1
John Gwillim, KF 14, Colombia
Ghana
According to American media, there is growing excitement in Ghana about the first Ghanaian to make it to the Superbowl. The Kansas City Star reports that Charlie Peprah of the Green Bay Packers has become “somewhat of a hero for the 23 million people there.” http://tinyurl.com/4k3qfu6
However, when I asked around, no one seems to have even heard of him. In fact, most people don’t know what American Football is. Looks like the Beautiful Game still reigns supreme here.
Football at Moree Beach, Ghana
Mei-ing Cheok, KF14, Ghana
Bolivia
In Bolivia American football is not very popular, however soccer is! When telling that I’m from the Netherlands, they often mention the loss in the World Cup final against Spain. Argh! When the Bolivian national team plays in La Paz they often win. Other teams call playing in La Paz the ‘suicide match’, because of the altitude: playing at a height of 3.660 meters (around 12.000 feet) is quite a challenge! However, last match in the South American Champions League between the number one team of Chile and the Bolivar team of Bolivia was won by Chile…
Fútbol (soccer) in La Paz
Klaartje Visser, KF14, Bolivia
Rwanda
When the Super Bowl airs at 4AM local time, I decided to do as the locals: sleep. Sleep over football seems to be the consensus from here.
Adam asleep under a mosquito net in Rwanda
Adam Cohn, KF 14, Rwanda
Jordan
While many of my friends and family back home are filled with excitement for the Superbowl, I can’t say people are filling the streets out of excitement for the Super Bowl here in Jordan. Right in our neighbors’ backyards, both steeling and packing have occurred, but there is no clear winner yet and the fans on each side are hedging their bets. A search for “Sports Bar” in Amman, Jordan, on Google Maps found just 3 results. Two out of the three are in the Marriott.
Google Maps search for "Sports Bar" Amman, Jordan
Alex Silversmith, KF14, Jordan
Mexico
Within two blocks of my apartment there were dozens of bars showing the game. I watched the first half in an Irish pub and the second half in an English pub. No American pubs apparently. Almost all of the crowd were Mexicans, though a lot had lived in the US at some point. The crowds were evenly divided between cheese heads and asaderos. Channel 7 (Mexico City) even had a reporter on the field at the stadium in Dallas.
The game as seen from Mexico City
John Farmer, KF 14, Mexico
Armenia
Kickoff time here in Yerevan, Armenia was around 4:30am Monday morning. The streets were pretty quiet and very cold. I decided to stay comfortable under my covers and watch the results from my laptop.
While international football (soccer) is quite popular here, American football is not. The most popular sports are wrestling and weightlifting. I hear that the Armenian soccer team is not great and no one seems to know when the team will play next or where I can purchase tickets.
Best place to watch the Super Bowl in Armenia; in bed at 4:30 AM!
Caree Edson, KF14, Armenia
Peru
So even though the Steelers lost I had a fabulous Superbowl in Lima. I thought about bringing my terrible towel to Lima, but since it is quite valuable to me I didn’t want to chance losing it during the next three months! I watched the game in my hostel with a bunch of folks who didn’t care at all about the game, but I didn’t mind. I even explained the rules of the game in Spanish to a Chilean, Australian and two Germans. I thought we had it. Sigh. Next year!
Steelers fan Noreen makes her own shirt while in Lima, Peru to show her team pride
Noreen Giga, KF 14, Peru
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone was not crawling with football fans….no one seems to know or really care about the game. Despite the odds, KF14 member David was able to catch the end of the game in Freetown.
David McNeill, KF 14, Sierra Leone
Guatemala
Guatemalans in Quetzaltenango do not get too excited about the Superbowl, but every bar is happy to accommodate ex-pats, tourists, and volunteers from the U.S. who are in town for the game. Gustavo of KF14 celebrated the event with a large portion of Pearce Corps Guatemala, many of whom are currently displaced from their placements in the area of Coban, Guatemala. Coban is currently in a state of siege and all volunteers in the area were forced to leave indefinitely. Despite the setback, spirits were high and high fives were plentiful.
Gustavo Visalli, KF14, Guatemala
South Africa
South Africans care about three sports: soccer, rugby, and cricket. There were no signs of the Super Bowl in Richards Bay, South Africa, except for late last night in EB’s room. (She was rooting for the Packers.)
South African sports equipment selection; not an American football in sight
EB showcases her Green Bay pride from South Africa
EB Moore, KF 13, and Alexis Ditkowsky, KF14, South Africa
John Gwillim is a Kiva Fellow currently serving with Fundación Mario Santo Domingo in Barranquilla, Colombia.
