Posts filed under 'Peru'
Kiva Update from PBS Frontline World
Suzy Marinkovich, KF8 Peru & KF9 Bolivia
One of the most exciting things about being a Kiva Fellow is the opportunity to tell the untold stories of those so remote, so rural, and so ignored by the media. When there are six billion humans sprinkled across the world, the media has the unenviable task of (more…)
1 comment 18 November 2009
A Quick Break in the Oasis of America
By Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
Taking a brief recess from borrower profiles and repayment schedules at Kiva’s MFI pilot partner Caja Rural one weekend in Ica, Peru, I escaped to visit the small town of Huacachina, the “oasis of America”, located just a few miles outside the sandy metropolitan hub of Ica. Having become famous for its natural lake enclosed by sand dunes, the tiny city of about 115 people has become an immensely popular tourist destination not only for its aesthetic appearance but also the sandboarding and dune buggies.
For those unfamiliar, sandboarding is very similar to snowboarding except, yep you guessed it, it is performed on sand. First popularized in California in the 1980s, there are now annual Sandboarding World Championships held in Hirschau, Germany. Who knew???
2 comments 3 November 2009
Halloween in Cusco
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
In Cusco, Peru, Halloween is celebrated in full force. It kinda feels like home (side note: home for me is Brooklyn, New York). Back in New York, I usually put some pumpkins on my stoop and make some curried pumpkin soup. This year, Cynthia McMurry (Kiva’s Field Support Specialist in South America) and I are going to carve a zapallo and make some soup. So it will feel like home!
Here are some photos from Halloween in Cusco -
I’ll add more over the weekend when I see people dressed up and out trick ‘o treatin’… Hopefully I’ll get to see some cute little kids dressed up like pumpkins.
Happy Halloween from Cusco, Peru!
Celebrate Halloween by lending to Kiva borrowers.
Sheethal Shobowale is currently serving as a Kiva Fellow in Cusco, Peru with Asociación Arariwa
2 comments 31 October 2009
Why We Should Debate Loan Expiration
By Suzy Marinkovich, KF 8/9
As you may have seen, over the past couple of months Kiva has seen its first loans expire on the site. Currently, I am in my eighth week of working with a brand-new Kiva partner, CIDRE, an MFI specializing in agriculture and livestock loans in Bolivia. I mention this because I’ve noticed a significant portion of the loans that have expired or are close to expiration are from MFIs in Bolivia. I realize my opinion is skewed by having spent only a handful of days at Kiva headquarters followed by 5 months at two Kiva partners in South America. As a result, I don’t have really have a great vision from the top – I don’t understand all the organizational elements in place to keep Kiva sustainably rolling. I am just going to call it like I see it now, sun-drained from a long day spent on grueling rural roads, visiting incredibly inspiring Kiva borrowers and successful social projects CIDRE has had a hand in.
My understanding of the premise behind loan expiration is that it allows for Kiva to be more of a marketplace – where instead of making decisions on the end of Kiva, they are made on the end of the MFI and the funding choice is up to the lenders. Thus, the website itself is designed to be like an Ebay for microloans, an intermediary between funders and the funded.
Here is my reasoning for why I personally believe the expiration of loans on Kiva could be detrimental:
1(a). To make an analogy with the child-sponsorship model (please bear with me as it’s stretch): imagine a marketplace for sponsoring children’s school loans, with the exact same design as Kiva. At this hypothetical site, lenders like us could lend to cover school fees for children that would pay for middle or high school (in many countries, attending said schools requires paying school fees). Children’s photos and biographies are thus posted to this hypothetical site, and we treat it like a marketplace. Then, as the site expands and more loans are posted, certain kids aren’t being funded – their loans expire on this site. Then, you pull up the pages of all the children whose loans expired, and they are all kids who aren’t cute or aren’t fitting our notion of how a needy child should look. As you can see, this is unfairly discriminant.
28 comments 30 October 2009
getting there
By Shereef Zaki, KF9, Perú
Cultural issues surrounding privacy can be one of Kiva’s biggest challenges regarding implementation in the field. Not everyone wants their photo publicized and many hold suspicions when it comes time to sign a waiver. But I think the biggest challenge for Kiva is far more prosaic. The act of getting to a borrower can be an ordeal in and of itself, and things just got more ‘adventurous’ at my MFI.
EDPYME Alternativa has created a new loan product – called Capital Semilla or Seed Capital – destined specifically for clients who will become Kiva borrowers. Loans of $300 or less at a low interest rate are now offered to rural entrepreneurs. Finding them for the interview generally involves a unique combination of collective vans, collective taxis, mototaxis and walking aimlessly through fields – for hours.
And the journeys take us through landscapes that are beautiful whether through unforgivingly desolate desert or knee high cornfields with palm and locust trees spotting the hazy windless horizons.
For your viewing pleasure I have chronicled one day’s worth of transportation that Manuel (the Kiva Assistant) and I embarked on in order to find just 4 borrowers.
Photos after the jump… (more…)
2 comments 28 October 2009
“Nuestra Capital Semilla” (Our Seed Money)
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
My first loan disbursement outside of the Asociación Arariwa office took place in San Sebastian, an area of Cusco about 15 minutes away from the office.
This group meeting was my ideal picture of group microfinance. Banco Comunal de Maria Auxiliadora is a group of 11 low-income women from Cusco, engaged all all different types of businesses, from cosmetic and grocery sales to artesanía. They had failed to make their repayments on time in their last loan cycle but this time, Valentina, their loan officer was determined for them to succeed.
(more…)
20 comments 28 October 2009
Re-Introducing the Guinea Pig
By Bryan Goldfinger, KF9 Peru
After my first blog post and the various emails and comments I received in response, I felt an obligation to at least provide somewhat of an update on the “Guinea Pig Situation” here in Peru. Ironically, after dubbing myself “the Guinea Pig” there seems to be some sort of astrological connection, an alignment of planets, which has been steering me in the direction of various guinea pig interactions (my own curiosity may also have had something to do with this).
Jesús and his "Cuy Campeón"
11 comments 22 October 2009
A Stockpile of Dollars: How to Deploy Kiva Funding
by Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
With a significant new source of funding comes considerable responsibility and opportunity for those who represent the funds at the local MFIs (aka the Kiva Fellows). One of the most exciting privileges about working at a brand new pilot partner is the opportunity to influence how Kiva is best utilized and implemented. When discussing just this topic with the credit manager of Caja Rural Señor de Luren, we brainstormed how the new “Kiva product” could benefit the community within Ica where other capital did not penetrate:
- The major benefit decided upon will be that new “Kiva clients” will be charged a 1% lower monthly interest rate than their other clients, which is quite significant on an annualized basis! This will not only ease pressure off clients who struggle to pay the high interest payments that microfinance institutions typically charge but it will also attract additional microentrepreneurs whose access to funding has been limited due to their inability to make the monthly repayments from solely their standard business operations.
- Another aim for these loans will be to support new microenterprises in need of funding to get on their feet. These entrepreneurs may struggle either because they do not have sufficient credit experience/collateral or because they need an injection of capital to start all over again after their previous business or home was destroyed in the severe Peru earthquake of 2007. By promoting the “Kiva product” to these entrepreneurs who may typically be viewed as higher risk and not eligible for a normal loan, we will provide the funding necessary for many hard-working men and women to realize their business ideas.
Only time will tell how these factors may or may not impact the lives, families, and businesses of those within the Ica community. However, I was quite grateful to be bestowed the opportunity to provide input on how microcredit will be disbursed to entrepreneurs in Peru!
The following is Chapter 2 of my video diary. Enjoy!
Josh Wilcox is a Kiva Fellow at Caja Rural Señor de Luren in Ica, Peru as part of the KF9 class.
Don’t forget to LEND to other South American entrepreneurs and JOIN the Amigos de Caja Rural Señor de Luren lending team!
12 comments 21 October 2009
this is not aisle 3
By Shereef Zaki, KF9, Perú
One of my first posts was titled ‘recession proof’’ in which I described the resilience of micro-businesses and the integrity of micro-lending. This time around, I want to detail a theme I had only painted with large brushstrokes.
Although EDPYME Alternativa’s borrowers are scattered throughout the region, I live in Chiclayo and it has become the backdrop and the context of my life. To me, one of the most fascinating parts of this small city is the dearth of big box stores. In their absence exists a constant buzz of small-scale commerce.
Let me describe this vibrant economic landscape. In the center of the city, around the main plaza, there is a mixture of restaurants and shops devoted to clothing and electronics (especially cell phones). As one ventures further from the center, the streets become organized by economic themes.
-
- A shop selling paint or glass on Avenida Cuglievan
-
- Another shop selling glass on Avenida Cuglievan
-
- A string of shops selling paint on Avenida Cuglievan
-
- An endless stretch of candy shops on Bolognesi selling King Kong*
-
- A row of salons on Avenida Arica
-
- Four corners and four pharmacies at the intersection of Balta and Pedro Ruiz
-
- In the Mercado Modelo – one of the largest semiformal markets in Perú – there is a seemingly endless amount of organized commerce. For example, the footwear section
(more…)
9 comments 15 October 2009
We are all Kiva partners (Somos Todos Socios de Kiva)
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
Wordreference translates the Spanish word socio as member or partner.
Yesterday, on my first day as a Kiva Fellow at Asociación Arariwa, I got to see my first group loan disbursement. Raquel (the Kiva coordinator at Arariwa) described the borrowers as Nuestros Socios (our members). In a group loan at Arariwa, the borrowers are Socios del banco. A lender who joins the Kiva community can also be called a Socio de Kiva. I translate Kiva’s partner MFIs as Socios de Kiva (Kiva partners) and I describe myself as Socio de Kiva (Kiva Fellow). And one more: here’s a past blog post by another Kiva Fellow, Michelle, about Socios Dinámicos.
Of course we all have other names -
- Institución de Microfinanzas – Microfinance Institution: Asociación Arariwa
Institución de Microfinanzas - Microfinance Institution: Asociación Arariwa
- Prestamista – Lender: Kiva Lending Team Amigos de Asociación Arariwa
Prestamista - Lender: Kiva Lending Team Amigos de Asociación Arariwa
- Prestatario – borrower: Ayda from Asociación Arariwa, Cusco, Peru
Prestatario - borrower: Ayda from Asociación Arariwa, Cusco, Peru
- Voluntario – Volunteer: “Lethal” Sheethal Shobowale, Kiva Fellow, KF9, Peru
Voluntario - Volunteer: "Lethal" Sheethal Shobowale, Kiva Fellow, KF9, Peru
but I really like the idea that we are all socios (partners or members) of Kiva, of microfinance and in alleviating poverty. And going back to Kiva’s mission, Connecting People through Lending to Alleviate Poverty, being connected as socios seems to make sense to me.
Please consider becoming a Socio of Asociación Arariwa by lending to Arariwa borrowers and joining our Kiva lending team – Amigos/Amigas de Arariwa!
Sheethal Shobowale is currently serving as a Kiva Fellow with Asociación Arariwa in Cusco, Peru.
9 comments 13 October 2009
RSS - Posts