Author Archive
A Kiva Fellow’s Scrap Book
Today is my last day as a Kiva Fellow. Kiva Fellows Class number 10 (or KF10) took me to Zaporozhye, Ukraine where I worked with Kiva’s field partner HOPE Ukraine; KF11 brought me here to Lomé, Togo, where I work with two different field partners, Microfund Togo and Women and Associations for Gain both Economic and Social, or WAGES. I can’t think of two countries more different, and I have loved and been challenged by both experiences equally. (more…)
Kiva Makes it Personal
By Leah Gage, Kiva Fellow in Togo
Less than a year ago, Kiva was taken to task by critics for not being as person-to-person (P2P) as it was claiming to be. But I think Kiva’s continued relevance in the field of grassroots development rests precisely on its continued ability to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. There are lots of examples of this; here are three. (more…)
Why should a mom tie her baby to her back in Togo?
By Leah Gage, Kiva Fellow in Togo
All throughout Togo, women use a traditional cloth called a pagne. Pagnes are beautiful, they come in every color and print you can imagine. They’re extremely useful as make-shift blankets, clothing, bags, towels… Yesterday while buying something a woman unwrapped her pagne skirt partway because that’s how she wrapped up her spare change. But perhaps most important for a young working mother is the use of a pagne to wrap her baby to her back.
Why would a young mother wrap her baby to her back?!
Because she can’t afford childcare.
When mom and dad are struggling to put food on the table, or maybe saving for baby’s future school fees, spending money on day care is out of the question (not to mention culturally unacceptable). While she’s out working, mom can keep her baby with her without getting in the way. Whenever the baby needs anything, mom’s right there to take care. When her baby’s hungry, she can feed her. When her baby’s tired, the baby can sleep, nestled closely to her mother’s back. (more…)
Mission (Im)Possible? or Why Kiva Fellows are sorta like James Bond…
By Leah Gage, Kiva Fellow in Togo
Our Mission: Find Monsieur Kokou Abalo, a farmer who lives outside of Agbélouvé, Togo, to this month’s repayment and complete a Kiva interview. Kokou Abalo has a loan from Kiva’s field partner Microfund Togo. He’s also the last borrower on my list with whom I have to do an interview.
The Power of Microfinance
Development requires planning and patience. Yet constant worry about putting the next meal on the table or escaping your husband’s next beating do not allow for either planning or patience – those are immediate and urgent concerns. Microfinance makes those concerns less urgent; it is a bridge between economic necessity and social empowerment.
Lost & Found in Translation
By Leah Gage, KF10 Ukraine
In a few days, my Kiva Fellowship with Kiva’s field partner HOPE Ukraine will come to a close. In three months I’ve visited 10 different towns and villages throughout Ukraine and met about 40 Kiva borrowers. Not only is this essential to my work as a Kiva Fellow, but borrower visits are my absolute favorite part of volunteering for Kiva! And none of them would have been possible without my favorite Ukrainian ladies, my interpreters Kate, Masha, Nastya, Oksana and Alina (pictured below).
Pictured clockwise from top left is me with Kate, Masha, Alina, and Nastya
Meet a Loan Officer!
By Leah Gage, KF10 Ukraine
When you make a loan to a Kiva borrower all the way in Kenya or Cambodia or Ukraine, do you ever think to yourself, “I wonder who took her picture?” Do you ever wonder, “Did someone ask her if she was okay with going up on Kiva?” Have you ever asked the question, “How am I getting repaid on this loan, anyway?”
Loan Officers get schooled on Kiva
By Leah Gage, KF10, HOPE Ukraine
A couple weeks ago HOPE Ukraine invited me to their bi-annual national conference to give a presentation about Kiva. This is the sort of thing Kiva Fellows dream about. Fourteen seated and listening loan officers, whose sole purpose is to sit and listen to you talk about Kiva?! Obviously I jumped at the chance to take my third night train trip to Kiev to generally explain the ever-confusing Kiva “concept” to these hard-working individuals.
My job was made more difficult by my utter lack of Russian language skills, and my teeny-tiny awkward stance in a room full of burly Ukrainian loan officer dudes. But I found that everyone was really engaged in the presentation. They had lots of questions. After going over topics like gaining consent to take a client’s photograph and post it on the internet and strategies for gathering compelling borrower profiles and journal updates, to my dismay I realized that these loan officers did not understand how or why Kiva works.
HOPE Ukraine's loan officers stand to thank me after my presentation. Luckily, they thought I was kind of hilarious.
When Borrowers become Lenders, and Heroes in the process
Yuryi and Tatyana Syomkin own an auto parts and body shop in the small village of Mikhailovka, Ukraine. They’re the only business in the area that can provide quality auto parts and vehicle repairs. Last month, the mayor of a neighboring village called Tatyana when their school bus broke down. The mayor asked if Yuryi would be willing to fix the bus on credit, the village government wouldn’t be able to pay the Syomkins for the job until later. In such a small community, Tatyana told me, it’s hard to say no when you’re asked for help. Not to mention when the mayor calls and asks you to fix the village school bus. And so Yuryi and Tatyana obliged, as they always do; they’re still waiting for the 7,000 hryvnas they’re owed for the job.
Tatyana and Yuryi Syomkin waved to me from their shop
Frigid Finance: Small Business in Cold Climates, Part 1
Most of Kiva’s borrowers are located within the southern hemisphere, where problems like sleet storms and dzuds (check back Monday!) are nowhere in sight. But in Kiva’s EECA region (Eastern Europe and Central Asia), borrowers deal with a half year and maybe more of bitter cold and all the weather problems that come with it.
Would you buy oranges while standing in the snow?
Today I dragged my glamorous young interpreter, Alina, and loan officer Sergei to the frozen mud of the outdoor markets of Melitopol, Ukraine. I was on a specific mission: to find out how cold weather affects HOPE Ukraine’s borrowers. It snowed in Melitopol today, and I admit that I thought my toes were going to freeze off during one of today’s visits with a borrower. According to weather.com there was a high of 29˚F. (more…)
Lending in Ukraine is Sexy!
When you look at the average photo of a Ukrainian Kiva Borrower, you’ll most likely see a woman about 40 standing in front of retail shelves stocked full of merchandise. Chances are she’s a vendor at one of Ukraine’s many outdoor markets, or Rynok (Рынок).
Meet Alla Slichko, a vendor at an outdoor market in Mukachevo, Western Ukraine. She's currently fundraising - consider lending her $25!
During Kiva Fellows training at Kiva HQ in San Francisco, I learned that Kiva borrowers located in Eastern Europe or Central Asia are often the least popular on the Kiva docket and the last to receive funding. One staffer even suggested that lending in Ukraine isn’t sexy. How could this be?! Perhaps it’s the well-stocked shelves, or maybe the often un-smiling, warmly dressed men and women, that do not illicit immediate sympathy or the thoughts of poverty that lenders often associate with Kiva borrowers? (more…)
Kiva & the Ukrainian election: what’s the connection?
As a Kiva Fellow, I don’t think I’ll have a clear picture of how Kiva borrowers have been affected by Ukraine’s election or the country’s economic instability until I meet the entrepreneurs in person, which starts next week. I’ll be meeting Kiva borrowers at the enormous Angolenko Market, the largest market in Zaporozhye that houses many of HOPE Ukraine’s clients.
Microfinance Summer Camp
I’m Leah, a Kiva Fellow about to serve in Zaporozhye, Ukraine with Kiva’s field partner HOPE Ukraine/Nadiya. These are questions I get all the time:
So, you’re moving to Ukraine? [Feel free to substitute Liberia, Mongolia, or some otherwise traditionally undesirable living environment where Kiva works.] Do you know its -32F in Ukraine right now? Yes.
