Posts filed under 'Mozambique'
Tchau Moçambique
By Cameron Morris KF8, Mozambique
On Monday ten hours of arduous bus travel took me from Maputo to Johannesburg and brought a pretty definite end to my Kiva Fellowship. Before going to Mozambique I was easily amazed by wonky, academic models that sought to bring the end of poverty to the world. It didn’t take long to realize that those theories are exactly that, just theories that in reality cannot be easily applied. People are not merely numbers or statistics and their problems are not inputs into functions. Their problems are real and have voices. Voices that are not full of sob stories, but that are pragmatic and eager to get things done. They do not need economists in white coats to solve their problems, nor do they need bags full of money. They merely need to be enabled to pursue their ideas, plans and dreams. (more…)
4 comments 8 October 2009
Microcredit Operators–>Microbanks–>Banks
By Cameron Morris, KF8 Mozambique
Microcredit operators, microbanks, and banks are the three primary designations for consumer facing financial institutions in Mozambique. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending some of my time assisting the Kiva portfolio team with MFI recruitment. I’ve met with a full range of financial institutions with executive directors as diverse as the populations they serve.
I would guess that currently the majority of Kiva’s partners fall into the microcredit or microbank category. These institutions are the quaint organizations that usually characterize microfinance and that more importantly meet the requirements for working with Kiva.
What I’m curious about is what will happen when these institutions start to mature. (more…)
3 comments 16 September 2009
Life on the Mozambique-Swaziland Border
By Cameron Morris-KF8, Mozambique
For the last week and a half I have been working out of the Hluvuku-Adsema office along the bustling Mozambique-Swaziland border in the town of Namaacha, Mozambique. Namaacha is nestled in the Libombo mountains, boasts a plenitude of colonial architecture and has extremely erratic weather (please believe that it gets mighty cold in Mozambique). During the near fortnight that I’ve been here I have been continually impressed by the ingenuity of the international businessmen and women that ply their trade along the border.
Many of us claim to be polyglots or to engage in or have some knowledge of international business, but what does that really mean in practice? We have pedantically learned languages in school, have spent decently protracted periods of time abroad, have had conference calls with our foreign offices or flown to foreign lands to conduct business in English, the commercial lingua franca. (more…)
4 comments 2 September 2009
BOOM! housing (a case for housing loans)
By Cameron Morris KF8, Mozambique
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe, right? Well, yes and no. Although that text is lifted directly from the about us section of Kiva’s website it doesn’t tell the complete story. If your zeal for Kiva has lead you to spend late nights combing through Kiva loans you may have also noticed loans for housing, education, and personal use. Alas, how is building a home, going to school or buying a refrigerator an entrepreneurial activity. None of these activities are inherently entrepreneurial, but they are all deeply connected to Kiva’s umbrelic mission to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Let me tell you a few things you may not know about the housing market.
6 comments 13 August 2009
Kiva Fellows in DeNile
By Jaclyn Berfond, Laura Buhler, Alison Carlman, Joel Carlman and Cameron Morris
Last weekend the East African Kiva Fellows delegation descended upon the bustling streets of Kampala, Uganda and the banks of the Nile River for two days of intense knowledge transfer and mild revelry. We spent hours discussing the importance of data validity in performing operational cost analyses and tried to debunk the myth that OpenOffice does not properly save .csv files for uploading repayment information to PA2. We also had a little fun. We left Kampala feeling refreshed and full of ideas to take back to our MFIs.
Now it’s your turn. We are officially issuing a challenge to the other regions (LAC, Asia, Western Africa and Eastern Europe) to prove that you are as united and have as much regional spirit as the East Africans. Excuses will not be tolerated. As Kiva Fellows this is a challenge you should be ready to take on. We did it, so can you. We also made an amazing video documenting our adventure. Check it out!
Jaclyn, Laura, Alison, Joel and Cameron are Kiva Fellows spread out over the East African Region. To read more about their experiences and their MFIs click on their names above.
12 comments 3 August 2009
Agriculture: We Want More!
By Cameron Morris KF8, Mozambique
In San Francisco waking up on a Saturday morning and hitting the Noe Valley farmers market is always a good time. Organic, sustainably grown, local produce , grass-fed, free range meat, 30 something couples playing with their toddlers and quaint discussions with local farmers are just a few of the delights. I’ve got a particular soft spot for the ever-popular heirloom tomatoes, I even went so far as to cultivate my own last year.
How does the image I’m painting relate to the market I visit every day in Boane, Mozambique? While there obviously aren’t three year olds sporting Obama tees in the Boane market part of me always assumed that the products being peddled in such markets were being sold by someone just a few deviations away from the local farmer. My dream was recently crushed when a co-worker told me that a lot of the agricultural products found in the market were imported from South Africa. While Mozambique isn’t entirely dependent upon food imports from South Africa they do get a lot of their food from their neighbor and certainly have deficiencies with local agricultural production. (more…)
9 comments 9 July 2009
The Dissemination of Technology, Development and Kiva
By Cameron Morris, KF8 – Mozambique
During Kiva Fellows training we were tasked with putting Kiva’s Mission statement into our own words. This gave us the opportunity to critically think about Kiva’s mission and to highlight aspects of the mission that we thought most important. I placed emphasis on Kiva’s use of technology to meet its goals. Having been in the field, Mozambique , for a little over a week I have been amazed by the creative leveraging of basic technologies by my MFI.
Mozambique is a country that is still recovering from a 15 year civil war, and is tremendously under served by the public sector. Much of the existing public infrastructure in Mozambique pre-dates colonial independence. In the region that my MFI operates (Matutuine, Southern Maputo Province) there are virtually no paved roads and basic “luxuries” such as showers are non-existent. In this climate, private sector technologies are heavily relied upon and creatively used to fill in where the public sector cannot provide. Here are a few examples: (more…)
6 comments 26 June 2009
Wheelchair donated to a Kiva Mozambican client by KivaFriends!!!
A week ago, Regina Jose, Hluvuku’s client in Mozambique, received a brand new wheelchair to replace her broken one!!! KivaFriends donated it, and with the help of many people it was bought, transported from South Africa to Mozambique and delivered to her!!
Regina was so happy with her new wheelchair that she even cried! Now she will be able to resume her activities and will go to church on Sundays, something she described as her favorite activity. As I wrote in my last blog, it took just over one month since my first journal about Regina to get all this done. One of Regina’s lenders who is also part of KivaFriends brought this into KivaFriends attention and in a teamwork event it was successfully concluded!
As I mentioned in my last blog, I’m quite impressed with this network of good-hearted people that don’t know each other in person but work together for the same cause – to help those in need.
The picture shows Regina shaking Bernardo Tembe’s hand (Hluvuku CEO) and with Ernesto Rungo, Regina’s loan officer from Hluvuku.
I’m already back from my fellowship in Mozambique and as some other fellow fellows, I will write about my microfinance experience in my next blog.
Ate mais.
Posted on behalf of Beatriz Mauro
5 comments 5 August 2008
Was Kiva ever meant to be a Microfinance Fund?
I wonder if Jessica and Matt Flannery, Kiva co-founders, meant to create a Microfinance Fund to help local entrepreneurs in developing countries have money to grow or help their business. When I decided to join Kiva as a Kiva fellow I told my friends I was going to work for a Microfinance Fund. Last week I understood I was completely wrong. Kiva is a global community, not a microfinance fund based on small individual lending.
The other Friday, June 6th 08, I posted a journal about a client I visited the previous day. Nothing special, that’s one of my main tasks here. However, the client, a disable woman, mentioned that her wheelchair was broken and that she hasn’t been to Church in almost 2 months, and therefore was considering using a next loan to buy a wheelchair. I wrote that. The following morning I read a comment on the journal written by a Kiva Friend saying that KivaFriends would be willing to donate a new wheelchair to Regina Jose (picture below). The next day Jill, the KivaFriend, created a new thread at KivaFriends and on Monday, June 9th, when I opened Kivafriends.org for the first time in my life I saw that more than 300 people had seen Jill’s message and there were around 30 replies. People around the world were committed to give Regina Jose a new wheelchair, and then, for the first time, I realized I was working for a community, not for a Microfinance Fund. Now this message board has been seen for more than 900 people!!
For those not familiar with KivaFriends, it is a parallel non-profit organization that was created by very committed Kiva lenders, with the intent of helping further Kiva clients and Kiva itself. I am quite impressed by the power of Internet and global instant communication. Within 10 days the wheelchair was chosen and will be acquired next week, with delivery scheduled for the following week, hopefully in time for me to deliver the chair (representing KivaFriends) and take a few pictures on the occasion.
I am thrilled to see so many good people in the world wanting to help a client in a very poor neighborhood in the outskirt of Mozambican’s capital city Maputo. So many people have given advises and tried to help! A few even joined KivaFriends for the first time to help with donation!
If Jessica and Matt wanted a microfinance fund, they have it. Kiva is a fast growing fund on its way to be one of the largest microfinance funds in the world. Congratulations for that. But I believe they need a long applause for the community of good people they put together for the cause – helping alleviate poverty and promote economic development.
I’ll keep you posted on Regina’s wheelchair story!
Khanimanbo.
Add comment 15 June 2008
Field Experience
I’ve been working in Mozambique with Hluvuku-Adsema for the past 3 months now and I’m not even close to adapted. I must have visited more than 100 clients so far, and sometimes it is still quite hard to face reality. As a professional in the field I’m supposed to leave my emotions aside, right? Why is it so hard? Am I a bad “field employee” because I feel or am I just hurting myself?
I remember when my brother started to operate while in Medical University. My aunt, a doctor herself, told him the hardest part of being a doctor was to put the feelings aside and not suffer for all the patients’ lives my brother would loose in his career. I remember the first time my brother lost a patient. He went to my parents’ house devastated, and wouldn’t even talk. Four or five years have passed since my brother became a surgeon. I’ve listened to him talking about a few patients he has lost, but never emotional. Does this mean he doesn’t feel anymore, that he adapted? Or that he is just pretending he doesn’t feel anything?
Last Thursday I’ve visited 16 clients (Kiva and non-Kiva clients) and when I arrived home at night I was completed exhausted; emotionally devastated. I had seen so much poverty, so many problems, so many kids in horrible situations, diseases, hunger, lack of a proper home to live. A strong storm hit the region the previous night, and many people that had plastic roofing had just lost their home with everything inside. Many clients lost their stand and their place to sell their products, but they weren’t as scared as I was. They were sad, but behaving as “we lost it all one more time”, which for me was even more hard to take it.
I come from a developing country. I have already volunteered in slums in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. I’ve seen poverty and many children begging in the streets. Why am I still not used to it? Why do I still feel so much? I would like to work with economic development as a profession. Does that mean I will never be good enough for it? I will never adapt? Or am I just in my first “field year”, just like a first med school year?
Yesterday I walked through the capital city Maputo the whole day, just thinking and trying to understand the reality I am facing. With my sad spirit came my furiousness. If I already wanted to help the poorest reach the ladder of development, now I will.
Jeffrey Sachs said in one of his books that you can’t study, understand, and advise a country in it’s economic development path without going into the field, without clinically diagnosing what is the country’s “disease” so that you can find the best “remedy”. I agree. A field experience changes one’s looks and comprehension of the world. It does put life into perspective.
Khanimanbo.
4 comments 8 June 2008
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