Posts filed under ‘KF9 (Kiva Fellows 9th Class)’
I Am Happiest When…
I began writing this blog on a scrap piece of paper just north of the Burkinabé/Ghanaian border. I had spent my morning walking across the border carrying a 40-pound pack and subsequently spending far too much money on a taxi into the nearest town. My Kiva Fellowship had ended a week and a half earlier, and I was sitting in a hot, dirty hotel room with a concrete floor, grimy walls, and inconsistent electricity. I was desperate for entertainment. I had finished the only book I brought on this three-week post-fellowship excursion, my computer was lifeless without the electricity to charge the battery, and my broken iPod seemed to be mocking me with its inaccessible entertainment. I was entirely alone. So, I took some time to process the last four and a half months.
Continue Reading 27 August 2010 at 10:03 taylorakin 4 comments
And Vietnam Continues…
My Kiva fellowship has officially ended. I returned to the US two weeks ago and still have plenty of processing to do. The only thing I am certain of is I have yet to understand what it all means down the road. In some ways it seems a dream had ended. But the vivid memories of specific moments that made it worthwhile spring me back into reality. I can’t thank you enough for all the support from friends, family, Kiva Friends, my MFI, and the greater community. Below is a clip of one of my last motorbike rides: returning to my apartment after visiting the Hanoi Hilton (Hoa Lo Prison). It was used to hold American troops prisoner during the war. It was quite an inter-cultural experience as I am a Vietnamese-French-American. Thank you Kiva community and keep doing what you do!
Alex is the first Kiva Fellow (KF9) working with TYM Fund in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Interested in becoming a Kiva fellow? Click here.
Join the Vietnam lending team here.
Microfinance at the Margins
What have I learned about the nonprofit world? It’s complicated. Not the hard to solve kind but rather the kind that consumes a half-century before a dent is made.
(more…)
An Interest Rate Example
By Alex Duong, KF9, Vietnam
“That’s my philosophy. The key is to get up in that batter’s box and take a swing. And all you have to do is hit one single, a couple of doubles, and an occasional home run out of every 10 at-bats, and you’re going to be the best hitter or the best business leader around. You can’t play in the major leagues without having a lot of failures.
- John Donahoe, eBay CEO
Substitute “hitter” and “business leader” for microfinance institution and the quote is absolutely relevant. Microfinance is still in its infancy and far from perfect. So long as more players enter the batter’s box, exciting innovations will appear on the horizon. And interest rates are likely to come down assuming healthy competition takes place. Until that time, however, the following is one rationale for current interest rates from the perspective of interest rate spread (click “more” below).
Micro-Franchising: Despensas are the new 7-11
By Kimia Raafat, KF10 Paraguay
College students must pick a major. They distress over the decision: economics or accounting? Political science or general studies? Should I double-major? Add a concentration? And throughout the process, there are many that pick one out of obligation (with no path in mind), they hope for the best, and of course, hope this decision will lead to future professional success.
Microfinance borrowers must pick a career—they risk taking out a loan to invest in their business. They distress over the decision: Despensa(general store) or clothing sales? Should I double-up my business by selling empanadas? And throughout the process, there are many that pick an activity out of obligation (often with no path in mind), they hope for the best, and of course, hope this decision will lead to future professional success.
The Red Notebook and the Glue That Holds the Whole Story Together
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo
Sleep-deprived and over-heated, I sat in front of the fan in the loan officers’ room. I had been waiting for a loan officer at the WAGES branch office in Hédzranawoé for over an hour and sat unmoving as the room buzzed with activity all around me. Loan officers ran in and out, clients sat down and stood up, phones rang and calls were made, passbooks opened and closed, pencils scratched paper, sweat stained foreheads. I looked at the loan officer sitting across the desk opposite me. Adam is one of the kindest people I have met since my time here at WAGES, and I have had the opportunity to visit clients with him on several occasions. He is gentle, quiet, smiles easily and works extremely hard. I watched him flip through papers and carefully write the names of clients on a yellow post-it. With every name, he would “tsk tsk,” exclaim a high-pitched “ah” sound of frustration, and shake his head.
Continue Reading 3 April 2010 at 09:07 taylorakin 2 comments
Serving the Ordinary: The strength of microfinance
Four months ago, my starry-eyed impression of microfinance was shaken during my first interview with a borrower (on my third day as a Kiva Fellow with CREDIT MFI), who told me that she had pulled her children from school so that they could help with her business. Though this reveals a possible negative impact of microlending, I have come to discover that what is attractive and important about this development tool is precisely that it is not glamorous or sexy.
Continue Reading 30 March 2010 at 06:35 voyageons 3 comments
Scaling in a Saturated Market: The Kenyan Experience
Seventeen young, scared faces sit around the board room for the full-day training of new marketers. I had been present the day that this new crop of SMEP employees was being interviewed. They had assembled en masse at our head office; many of them looking like the suit they were wearing had been hastily purchased at one of the local secondhand markets in anticipation of their first job interview. In fact, they were what I refer to as “babies” the young-ish, newly graduated staffers whose faces more often look up at me when I am conducting trainings at the SMEP branch offices all over Kenya.
I don’t call them babies to disparage them, but actually to highlight the new crop of SMEP employees that is fresh-faced and wide-eyed, ready to take on challenges and work for the first MFI in Kenya.
The 17 new marketers take a while to warm up during the training – they seem scared to speak, and I think back to employee trainings I have been in the United States, where each one of us struggles to prove ourselves by opening our mouths and commenting on every nugget of information offered by the trainer. These new recruits are the latest line of offense on SMEP’s push to capture more market share in a country where microfinance is overwhelmingly popular.
Innovation – Found It!
After four months at ground zero, I hold certain things to be true. There will always be a tradeoff between quality and quantity. Also, sustainable aid does not include giving money away. Microfinance, which encompasses interest bearing loans, is currently a lead contender for sustainable development. Perhaps that is why it has peaked the interests of so many. And until most recently, I was concerned its current state was not sustainable. Why? Many MFIs are experiencing double digit percentage gains and hitting numbers that make any for-profit enterprise envious.
Be the spark, light the fire, keep burning
This is a blog that I’ve written in a hurry so as not to let the words swirling in my head escape my fingers on the page. In my tenure at SMEP, I’ve never attended the weekly devotional, held every Monday morning from 8-10 in the morning. I always thought of myself as a secularist, and I assumed that attending would make me uncomfortable – after all, I come from a place where there is separation of church and everything. I’ve grown up in the deeply religious “bible belt” of the Southern United States, and I just assumed that at SMEP, the devotional would take the color of some of the church services I have attended back home.
Nelly Barati, SMEP Client, and I show off the outfit that she made for me when I went to visit her at her shop. Nelly is one of my "mamas" in Nairobi.
Nothing prepared me for what I experienced today, as I attended devotion for the first time. As a community builder and activist, I know that sometimes we pull ourselves out of our own comfort zone to forge connections with others. I felt that by attending the morning devotional today, I’d show my co-workers that I cared about this institution and that I am interested in connecting with all of them on a deeper level.
SMEP is an organization that was born out of the highly influential organization, the National Council of Churches Kenya, an ecumenical Christian governing body that is an opinion leader in the country. This is a religious institution. Employees are asked if they are saved when they come on board. Meeting and trainings begin with prayer, and end with prayer. These people are serious about their god.
“Do You Know How To Run?”
On Thursday March 4th, the second Togolese presidential elections were held since the death of President Eyadéma Gnassingbé in 2005. After 38 years of uninterrupted rule, his son Faure assumed the presidency. Shortly thereafter, he held superfluous elections that resulted in a “democratic” confirmation of his leadership. The country erupted in civil unrest under the pretense of false electoral results, and hundreds were killed in the resulting violence.
Faure’s campaign posters dominate the billboards throughout Lomé
That first election of the post-Eyadéma era certainly set a precedent for fear. I quickly lost count of all the WAGES clients who reported a lack of demand for their products as a result of the elections. Countless others articulated a desire to take out another loan, but were waiting for the outcome of the elections before seeking additional credit. They did not want to be held financially responsible for defaults as a result of political instability.
Continue Reading 15 March 2010 at 08:39 taylorakin 6 comments
A Kiva Fellowship in Liberia
My first thought upon arrival in Monrovia, Liberia, in August 2009 for my Kiva Fellowship was, “Wow, such colors and amazing stories! I should make a movie for those who aren’t as lucky as I am to have this experience.”
So what you have here is just that: an attempt to bring everyone along with me on my amazing 3-month journey to understand, at the most basic-level, exactly how microfinance works and the social impact it has on both borrowers’ and lenders’ lives. The toughest part was keeping it short, ultimately eliminating over 7 hours of footage, to share my thoughts in just 9 minutes.
Of course, the best way to really experience this is to go be a Kiva Fellow, so don’t hesitate to follow the link at the end of the movie in order to be the change you want to see in the world!
Gotta get that paper: the well-travelled life of a simple loan form
Could you imagine having to do all your communication in writing, on actual paper? Or writing a check for every transaction or purchase that you made? Frankly, I don’t even remember how to write a check!
Anne, former Kiva fellow at SMEP and I shuffle loan forms to choose borrowers to randomly audit for Kiva
Everyday in Kenya, paper loan forms are traveling great distances in order to make microfinance work over a geographically diverse network of branch offices. With 19 branches, and 11 satellite branches all over Kenya, SMEP HQ in Nairobi bears the task of disseminating information back and forth to the branch offices all over the country. Since I’ve worked in some community-based financial institutions before in the US, I was accustomed to seeing things done electronically.
The Kiva Fellows have explored the various costs of doing microfinance on the blog from different angles and in different countries. What struck me as interesting about SMEP, is that the whole institution relies on paper to function. The cornerstone of the loan process is the loan form, the instrument through which critical information is disseminated – the loan amount, purpose, information about the borrower, the approval of the group members of the borrower, the acknowledgement of the receipt of the disbursement. The form is it, the beginning and end of the deal.
Why you should support group loans on Kiva
I met some Dutch Kiva lenders during a trip to Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca in Bolivia who don’t like to loan to groups on Kiva.
Both the MFIs I have worked with as a Kiva Fellow, Asociación Arariwa and Emprender offer both group and individual credit products, however, the majority of Arariwa’s clients and 40% of Emprender’s clients work within a banco communal (village bank). A banco communal basically acts like a mini financial institution. The MFI gives each member credit based on the amount they have requested and their ability to pay. Each member saves part of their loan and in some cases, can relend this money within the group and collect interest on this internal loan.
Here are some reasons why group loans work well in microfinance…
Continue Reading 5 March 2010 at 09:26 lethalsheethal 7 comments
The Dangers of Being an MFI Loan Officer
Imagine you’re a loan officer who’s working for one of Kiva’s partner MFIs. You’ve been traveling around the field, collecting repayments from quite a few clients over the course of the day. It’s getting late, and you’ve amassed a huge amount of cash – the equivalent of a few months’ worth of income for locals. As the sun begins to set, you realize you’re still at least an hour away from the office – an hour’s worth of travel on your motorcycle, over rough roads that are poorly (if at all) lit. What do you think could happen next?
Continue Reading 28 February 2010 at 18:27 evacwu 9 comments
The Royal Rumble: Yunus v. Compartamos
“You’re unhappy. I’m unhappy too. Have you heard of Henry Clay? He was the Great Compromiser. A good compromise is when both parties are dissatisfied, and I think that’s what we have here.” – Larry David
Within the international development community, a debate for the heart of the movement came to the fore two years ago with the IPO of Compartamos, the largest microfinance institution in Mexico. Divisive and controversial, Compartamos’ decision to sell shares and publicly list on an exchange is perhaps the clearest manifestation of where the two sides diverge. One side, led by Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, contends that, at its core, the sole fundamental mission of microfinance is poverty alleviation. The other side argues that the goal must be maximizing profit and, more specifically, ROE (return on equity) – extending services to a previously unbanked population and expanding via revenue growth. Just about everyone has an opinion on the decision and, at the very least, it allows for a great philosophical and economic debate about the most effective way to assist the billions of people who live below the poverty line.
Continue Reading 26 February 2010 at 08:00 Josh Weinstein 13 comments
Kiva Fellowship Sparks Self Awareness
Looking at my feet reminds me to, "Be Here Now" (Ram DaSs 1971)
As a Kiva Fellow, working in the field, life is often very exciting. There’s a funny thing about excitement though, sometimes it’s fueled by sheer joy and sometimes by total fear (otherwise known as anxiety!) It doesn’t seem to matter though what direction the catalyst is coming from, when I get excited I get, “all sorts of crazy” in my brain, thoughts fly left and right from one thing to another quickly and randomly. From one minute to the next I’m thinking about “minimum wage laws in Cambodia, how wonderful the frangipanis are here, my taxes, where I’ll be this time next year, genocide, mosquitoes – I wonder if the doxycycline really works, I wonder where I put that camera cord?” It’s like a losing game of Tetris sometimes, the music starts to go faster and faster and the pieces are just barely sliding into place as I try to stay present on what I am actually doing. Essentially my brain moves faster than my body and the result …well…here’s what happens…
Meet a Micro-Debt Collector
Alioune Badara Thioune has a confident stride. In the mornings he comes into the office sporting stylish sunglasses, a leather briefcase and a newspaper carefully tucked under his arm. After making the obligatory “good morning” rounds, he chooses a chair in the hallway and opens his newspaper until he is called into the office of the regional head. For some reason he always reminded me of a Senegalese Chili Palmer – John Travolta’s character in Get Shorty. And this was before I knew exactly what he did. (more…)
Of Chicken and Men
By Ujwal Kharel, KF9, Philippines
Today is my last day here at CCT. I can’t believe how soon it’s ending.
I have been largely absent from the blogosphere for more than a month. I blame that on two work weeks I missed being bedridden with chicken pox. I found it ironic (?) that I spent 19 years of my life in Kathmandu without any sickness, and within 4 weeks in a relatively cleaner and more developed city of Manila, I got bedridden. I realized that the worst part about getting a child illness at the age of 25 is not the severity of symptoms, but the ridicule from friends and cousins.
“What!? Chicken pox!? Haha! I had that when I was in the 3rd grade!”
“No way! But you are sooooo old!”
“Hey poxy!”
“Are you sure it’s not adult acne?”
Yeah, thanks everyone! (more…)
Agricultural Microfinance: Serving the Poorest
Last week I went to a town called La Castellana about an hour south of Bacolod to visit the NWTF branch there. I was there to meet a handful of Kiva borrowers and interview them about the progress of their loan. Over the course of two days, I met 6 women that currently have a loan with Kiva, and another 4 that I am going to post to the site this week. La Castellana is a town in the mountains that is largely supported by agriculture. It is also one of the major areas impacted by agrarian reform.
The Philippines is a country of ~90 million people, half of whom live in rural areas. Eighty percent (80%) of Filipinos living below the poverty line are in rural communities, supported primarily by agriculture. Over the past three decades, agricultural land ownership in the Philippines underwent a transformation via a series of legislation known as Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) passed in 1988. Designed to provide landless farm workers a piece of land, the program has redistributed several million hectares of farmland in 1.1-hectare units. It is a controversial topic, and its effectiveness at combating poverty is debatable. Regardless of whether or not CARP has worked, the ARBs (Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries) – the recipients of the farmland – are the poorest of the poor. They struggle to plant sugarcane and a piece of land that is too small to profitably grow sugarcane. They try to buy fertilizer and farming equipment but don’t have the capital. The government gave them land but failed to provide adequate funding or training. In many ways, the cards are stacked against them. So, unable to make ends meet, many just rent their land back to the owner. It is a vicious cycle, but microfinance can offer a solution.
Continue Reading 12 February 2010 at 09:00 Josh Weinstein 11 comments
Giving hope and commitment
One of my lasts tasks as a Kiva Fellow was to do a journal update an incarcerated Kiva entrepreneur.
Kiva’s field partner in Guatemala City, FAPE, has a program where they give women in jail trainings and a loan for their businesses while incarcerated. About one year ago, FAPE initiated this program in the jail in Guatemala City, four of the women were Kiva clients. Training programs were given. Loans were being repaid, and the women were even putting money away in savings. The program was a success. In late Summer of 2009, two things happened: the women were moved from the jail to the correctional facility and FAPE changed directors.
Continue Reading 9 February 2010 at 06:00 Jeremy Lapedis 5 comments
Offense Defense
With Super Bowl Sunday upon us, I have begun to think of life as a football game. Closer analysis of the sport inevitably leads to two topics of deliberation: offense and defense. Sunday night, the Colts and the Saints will be rotating their players based on their specialized roles in the field. We will see the offense attack, take control and engage the opposing team with the objective of scoring points. Then there is the defense, guarding their possession and protecting it from attack. As I thought about these two “ways of life”, I realized, I myself had rotated between offense and defense modes since living in South America.
Cusco on My Mind
If you haven’t heard, there have been terrible floods in Cusco, Peru in the past week. Since we are in the thick of La Epoca de la Lluvia (the rainy season), rain is expected but the level of destruction seen in the area is unimaginable.
Tourism is the main industry in Cusco, and the damage produced by the rain does substantial damage on the Cusco economy. From the February 3rd warden message from the U.S. Embassy in Peru, I read that Machu Picchu is closed and the rail line between Ollantaytambo and Aguas Calientes is closed due to landslides until possibly March. I also read that tourists were stranded in Aguas Calientes (the town closest to Incan archeological site Machu Picchu) and that the conditions were excruciating. Luckily, helicopters eventually evacuated all the tourists from the town.
Unfortunately, my Kiva clients in Cusco don’t have that luxury.
Kiva Animal Kingdom
At microfinance institution Asociación Arariwa in Cusco, Peru, and now working with Emprender in La Paz, Bolivia, I have met a ton of animals. Being an animal lover and from New York where I rarely see live animals walking around (unless the occasional stray cat or rat or cockroach counts), seeing animals as part of my daily life is a pleasure.
Continue Reading 2 February 2010 at 06:07 lethalsheethal 6 comments
Mass Weddings for the Poor
By Josh Weinstein, KF9 Philippines
The happy couple.
This Kiva Fellows job is unique, in that it offers an endless supply of intellectual stimulation and satisfaction. Every day, I learn something new about something interesting. For the time being, what interests me most is microfinance. My knowledge of microfinance prior to working with Kiva could be described as purely academic. Experiencing it firsthand has been rewarding. In particular, I like understanding the details of execution, the challenges faced by the institution, and generally how a microfinance institution works. The amount of information to digest is enormous, so I try to focus on understanding a few NWTF (Negros Women for Tomorrow) programs that I think are in my wheelhouse. The downside of that approach is that I end up overlooking many fascinating and unambiguously positive programs.
The other day my coworkers were telling me about the upcoming Foundation day at one of the branches. Every year, each branch that meets a certain threshold of repayment and performance can have a Foundation Day party, which has upwards of 2,000 attendees (mostly clients). I was supposed to go to one in Cauyauan on Saturday, but I got food poisoning the day before and was bedridden. At some of the Foundation Day celebrations, NWTF holds something called a mass wedding. This is one of those programs that I find really interesting for different reasons. Let me explain why. (more…)
Looking at Microfinance Through Rose-Coloured Glasses
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo
There is a lot of hype surrounding microfinance. For some, microfinance is an effective tool used to promote large-scale poverty alleviation. For others, it is simply considered a way for moderately poor individuals to better their own situations. If you’re reading this blog, you likely fit somewhere on this spectrum of belief that microfinance does at least some good. While the degree to which microfinance impacts the lives of the poor is often debated, the hype remains fairly constant. But can microfinance really live up to the publicity that precedes it?
A (rare) smiling Kiva entrepreneur, Teko Kongo. Coming soon to Kiva.org!
I must admit that I too was a victim of this hype. I naively thought that my work as a Kiva Fellow would include listening to many heart-wrenching, life-changing stories of success and failure as a result of, or despite the efforts of microfinance. My friends at home often joked that I was off to “save the world.” (more…)
Echoes of Violence
By Rob Packer, KF10 Colombia
One of the things that attracts people to the Kiva Fellowship is the chance to visit places they would never visit otherwise. Over the past three weeks with the Fundación Mario Santo Domingo (FMSD), I’ve been to barrios in Bogotá, Barranquilla and Cartagena that I would never have visited otherwise. The alegría and friendliness of Kiva borrowers normally means that this is an overwhelmingly positive experience. However, there are other kinds of visits, often to poorer areas, and it’s this kind of visit that haunts you and enrages your sense of justice in the world. Wednesday of this week was my hardest day in four months as a Kiva Fellow.
Parallels in Microfinance and Corporate America
By Alex Duong, KF9, Vietnam
A recent interview with John Hagel of my employer Deloitte sparked the idea for this blog entry (article here). According to Hagel, the US market is maturing to the point where solely focusing on product and process innovation have decreasing marginal returns. A good example is Microsoft Office or the iPod. At first, new products came out every 4-5 years. Now it seems the product line must be refreshed every 2-3 years. So what could serving the poor have in common with profit oriented businesses? It turns out there are plenty of parallels.
A few staff members of my MFI, TYM Fund
Moriré con las botas puestas (I’ll die with my boots on)
By Jeremy Lapedis, KF9, Guatemala
A violinist and pianist set the ambiance along with a slide show of pictures. Everyone attended FAPE’s 25th anniversary celebration: the board of directors, the general assembly, representatives from FAPE’s international partners (I was Kiva’s representative), and FAPE’s director, accountant, and lawyer. Moriré con las botas puestas. That’s what FAPE’s vice president of the board of directors said while giving an award to the president of the board.
While the vice president continued, I sat in my suit waiting to receive Kiva’s award. I couldn’t help but thinking how lavish this celebration was. How none of the loan officers had been invited to the ceremony. How there was hardly a mention of entrepreneurs aside from the pictures. How we were patting ourselves on the back, almost forgetting the people on the ground–the reason we were in microfinance in the first place. (more…)
