Author Archive
Changes to the Repayment Policy – who wins?
Some of you may have seen Kiva’s recent announcement of the policy change with regards to repayments, or indeed Claude’s excellent post from last week about the impact of Kiva policies in the field. As someone who has spent more than her fair share of time trying to implement a stricter repayment reporting policy at SEM in Senegal during the last 3 months, I too have found myself wondering what effect the recent removal of lender protection is going to have on the MFI’s operations.
Welcome KF10!
Uploaded by Nicki Goh on behalf of all of KF9!
Rap vocals from Brian Kelly , KF9 Armenia and Bryan Goldfinger, KF9 Peru.
Well done on getting this far through the week of training in one piece, KF10! Have fun at graduation tonight and have safe onward trips to your next exciting adventure! ENJOY!
Working with Ecovillages in Senegal
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal
Now that I am well into my second month here in Senegal, I thought it was worth sharing a little background on the MFI where I am working.
Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance was set up in 2004 by an American volunteer, John Fay, who was carrying out an economic assessment of the village of Louly Ngogom in Senegal. Following interviews with the villagers, John decided to set up a small micro-loan pilot programme to meet the demand for financial services in otherwise un-served communities. In that first year of 2004, he lent fifteen families just $30 each to purchase peanut seed and received 100% back in repayments. Since then, and with the help of Kiva – whose timely launch in late 2005 saw SEM taken on as Kiva’s 4th ever partner – SEM has succeeded in providing financing to groups in nearly 40 villages.
SEM is the microfinance arm of GENSEN, the Global Ecovillage Network here in Senegal. The Global Ecovillage Network’s mission, as expressed on its website includes: “contributing to the worldwide transformation toward sustainability, by supporting ecovillages, joining with like-minded partners, and expanding education and demonstration programs in sustainable living.” Sustainable living as described by GEN is not only a lifestyle dedicated to the preservation of the natural environment, but also a way of life that protects the society and its traditions in an economically viable way.
As one of these “like-minded partners” SEM’s policy is to finance only those clients who are members of a GEN-SEN accredited ecovillage. As such SEM would describe itself as an MFI with a very strong social mission: not only does it operate in rural areas of the country with no other access to financial services, but it is working with a network that encourages sustainable rural development
So what is an ecovillage? And what does being a member of one entail? How does this affect the kinds of business activities that the entrepreneurs can take on with the loan from SEM (and Kiva)? Does this mean that all of the business activities of SEM’s clients are wonderfully eco-friendly, accepting of traditional values and socially beneficial in every possible way?
Getting by with a little help from your friends
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal
Last week, I took my first field visit to the southern Casamance region of Senegal. Separated from the north of the country by the Gambia, the large Diola population of the Casamance region is primarily involved in fishing, rice cultivation and tourism. However, many SEM borrowers have other types of business: they sell vegetables, make clothing, rent bikes and bake bread. They make their livings providing new goods and services to their communities all thanks to loans that they have had from SEM and Kiva lenders.
Borrower visits: it's a hard life...
I went to meet some of these borrowers last week on the idyllic island of Carabane a 30-minute boat ride from the Casamance mainland. (It’s a beautiful place, I really did luck out on this Fellows Placement 
) During my interviews I asked them to tell me about any difficulties they have been having repaying their loans in the last few months. And from many of the groups, I got the same response: “Winter is a hard time to try to run a business!”
Now, anyone who has seen the way that businesses in the UK and other parts of Europe and the US have come to a stand-still this Christmas could be forgiven for thinking that it’s maybe a problem of climate or a slow-down caused by the festive season. However, in this predominantly Muslim country Christmas is celebrated by just a minority of the population and the winter sun is still bringing us temperatures of at least 27 degrees C (80F) so snow storms certainly aren’t the problem here. (more…)
Welcome to Senegal – the land of ‘Teranga’
By Nicki Goh, KF9 Senegal
After more than 2 months of waiting, the time has finally come for me to put into practice all that I learned back at the KF9 training week in San Francisco. As I sit here at the beginning of my second week working at Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance (SEM) I remember the nervous anticipation and excitement that I felt back in September when I embarked upon this Kiva journey – a journey which has so far included two flights and 3000 miles in a converted Army truck.
During the past 5 weeks that I have spent travelling through West Africa prior to this Fellowship, I have watched the landscape slowly evolve from Marrakech’s Atlas Mountains, through the sand dunes of the Mauritanian Sahara, on into the rolling plains of the Sahel in Mali and Burkina Faso and ending in the lush, tropical forests of Ghana’s southern regions. Quite a journey. And along the way I had small insights into the culture of my final destination – Paris-Dakar rally cars racing through the West Saharan desert; Senegal’s national dish of ceeb u jen being served everywhere in Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott; snippets of Senegalese rap in the bars of Ouagadougou and the traditions of Mali’s Bambara population whose shared heritage with the Senegalese Malinke transcends the somewhat arbitrary national border dividing them. Overall, plenty to maintain the buzz from Kiva training and to give me plenty to look forward to!
And so, in Ghana I bid farewell to my English-speaking travel companions to immerse myself once again in a Francophone culture without the comfort and reassurance that fellow travellers tend to provide. I abandoned the truck, the tent and the travelling in favour of a place to settle into for a while. And what better place to call home than Senegal – the land of teranga (hospitality).
