Posts filed under 'United States'
The Nature of Poverty
I’ve seen the effects of poverty in many parts of the world. A year spent in Latin America couldn’t have prepared me for the crushing poverty that I saw in India. In Jaipur- the lonesome eight year old girl with a baby strapped to her back collecting garbage along the train tracks. In Mumbai- the endless lines of street dwellers sleeping alongside the highway and the horrified starved looks on their faces. The man that used one arm to pull the small remaining portion of his body across the harsh cobblestone paths of Varanasi- I could never erase that image from my memory.
Nor can I erase the feelings from my heart after what I saw in New Orleans post- hurricane Katrina. The community was abandoned and left in shambles and the residents, after years of neglect were nearly helpless. I’m often heartbroken by the exposed and vulnerable I see on the streets of New York City- old, young, pregnant, war veterans and others just lost. When I visited my home last week, it was hard to miss the bulging crowd outside of the Denver Rescue Mission- or maybe it just looks smaller when the crowd huddles together to escape the freezing winters.
Trying to compare the destitute in San Francisco or New York City to the desolate in Katmandu or Lima would do an incredible injustice to truth of these individual situations. The nature of poverty in the United States often manifests in ways that we don’t commonly label as “poverty”, especially once compared to the destitution we see in developing countries. I can’t pinpoint it but, the look of boredom I saw yesterday on the face of a four year old girl in New York City, elicits a similar feeling from me as seeing the languish on the face of a child in India.
You cannot compare the empty stomach of a child in New Delhi to the bulging belly of a boy in Brooklyn; however the look of malaise on both of their faces can be a symptom of some form of poverty. Poverty can be due to the lack of dignity involved in the process of consumption. Over abundance and extreme lack have both been known to create hopelessness, violence, and severe health problems. The types of poverty that I distinguish have manifested themselves differently and each deserves a compassionate call to response.
How does this relate to Kiva…
The United States has been suffering from a community disconnection that has been growing for decades, and the affect has had implications across the globe. The movement to bring back our sense of community has taken many forms. Some buy locally grown foods or volunteer at local school programs. Now, you can choose to lend locally on Kiva and support small businesses that foster strong and dignified communities. I’m a firm believer in the interconnectedness of humanity, and that even the smallest of actions can have profound and long lasting impacts. By supporting a microenterprise on Kiva you are supporting the rights of an individual to a dignified way of earning a living and supporting their family- dignity is a strong word.
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Erica Dorn has recently completed her Kiva Fellowship at ACCION USA in New York City. She will be continuing a career in US Microfinance and can be reached at ericadorn@gmail.com. You can also follow her blogs related to US Microfinance at ACCIONUSA.org/blog
9 comments 21 July 2009
Microfinance through New-York-Colored Glasses
By Abby Gray, KF6/7, Togo & Senegal (now in New York)
In Dakar, this ad provoked vandals to rebel against the culturally inappropriate image. In New York, it wouldn't get a second glance.
If you have to deal with culture shock after 8 months of living in West Africa, New York is one of the most dramatic places to do it. On one hand, the vibrancy and energy of pedestrian-filled, trafficky New York streets isn’t all that different from the dusty “rues” of Dakar. Colorful fruit carts still grace the sidewalks, and overhearing conversations in foreign languages is a daily occurrence. On the other hand, skyscrapers and giant billboards of half-naked models are everywhere, as are exorbitant price tags on everything from purses to sushi dinners.
Having completed my official Kiva duties, I am now doing research at the Financial Access Initiative (FAI), a microfinance think-tank of sorts. It’s a consortium of researchers from NYU, Harvard, Yale, and Innovations for Poverty Action, focused on expanding access to quality financial services for low-income individuals. (more…)
4 comments 14 July 2009
New York City to Mexico City – Pre-Fellowship Musings
Pre-fellowship musings.
Continue Reading 2 comments 13 July 2009
Pissed Off Kiva Lenders
By John Briggs, KF8 Kenya
Update on sentiment shift: On June 23, Tom, the team captain for the (formerly) Pissed Off Kiva Lenders, changed the team name to Unhappy Kiva Lenders. Tom explained the name change in a posting on the team page: “I want the day to come soon when the team name will be ‘Delighted Again Kiva Lenders’ but the step above in the name change reflects current progress.”
Some Kiva lenders are pissed off about Kiva’s recent launch of loans to borrowers in the United States. Their angry cry has been heard in Kenya.
I arrived in Kenya two weeks ago to work with new Kiva field partner KADET. My marathon orientation-and-training tour is in full swing: this week I met dozens of KADET branch personnel in the western cities of Kisumu and Eldoret.
Successfully setting up Kiva-related operations poses many challenges for MFIs, but my new KADET colleagues made quick work of it. Both branches were able to post borrowers to Kiva on the same day they were introduced to it: Kisumu posted Maulyne’s loan and Eldoret posted Monicah’s loan.
Both loans were funded overnight, and the KADET staff was jubilant. At the Eldoret branch I joined KADET staff in poring over the Kiva lenders and lending teams who had supported Monicah. One lending team for Monicah’s loan jumped out at us: the Pissed Off Kiva Lenders.
Pissed off lenders? People at KADET were surprised. This wasn’t in the Kiva orientation I’d given them. Stephen Makanga, KADET’s integration and donor relations manager, and I decided to open the Pissed Off Kiva Lenders team page to find out more.
Image from the Pissed Off Kiva Lenders' team page
A statement on the page announced, “Kiva’s stated mission is to ‘alleviate poverty’. Poverty is defined as: ‘the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions’. Does that sound more like the situation for US Kiva borrowers or borrowers from the Third World countries?”
Stephen gave the page an incredulous stare and kept reading.
46 comments 20 June 2009
Upending microcredit: Cambodians use Kiva to lend to U.S. borrowers
This Wednesday marked a watershed moment for Kiva.org: borrowers from the U.S. made a well-publicized debut on the person-to-person microlending website. It left no doubt that microcredit, seen by many as the province of the poor, had arrived to serve Americans in need.
The floodgates are open, and they sluice both ways.
Kiva’s launch of lending in the U.S. has impassioned many, including a group of people in Cambodia near and dear to me — the staff of Maxima Mikroheranvatho, a Kiva partner microfinance institution where I was a Kiva Fellow from October 2008 to February 2009.
As Kiva ambassador-in-the-trenches at Maxima, one of the things I’d tried to impress upon them was the satisfaction I get out of being a Kiva lender. So when my posting at Maxima ended earlier this year, I’d settled on the perfect gift to help them understand this: a Kiva gift certificate.
Over our farewell dinner in Phnom Penh, I pulled out a printout of the Kiva gift certificate page and presented it to the senior managers at Maxima. As they’re in the business of microlending, minor disbelief ensued. Kiva!? Who would they lend to? When I told them that Kiva was considering launching in the U.S., excitement erupted.
9 comments 12 June 2009
U.S. Microfinance 101
U.S. Microfinance 101
I hear the phrase U.S. microfinance and I perk up- I’m not alone. Last week I was at a microfinance 101 meeting in New York City. The event was catered to a group of young professionals that were interested in getting involved, somehow, in U.S. microfinance. Someone asked a question about repayment systems for U.S. microloans, wondering if borrowers come into the office to make repayments or do the loan officers go “into the field” to collect? The end goal with domestic microfinance is the same as it is internationally; empower individuals to create prosperity through entrepreneurship.
To answer her question: on occasion a borrower may come into the office to drop off their payment, or a loan consultant will do a site visit. Generally speaking in the U.S. the repayment system is electronic, a monthly debit from the borrowers bank account. This sounds less compelling than the vision of a loan officer riding the entire day on a motorcycle to a rural village to collect a five dollar repayment from a loan for a cow. But, not to worry there are definitely other aspects of appeal for domestic microfinance.
Entrepreneurs are turned away from traditional U.S. banks for many reasons, maybe because of a low credit score or no score at all. They may not have a solid business plan or have not yet acquired the appropriate permits and licenses. In many cases though, the estimated $30 million unbanked Americans simply aren’t served or don’t have access to traditional banking. Many entrepreneurs just need a few tools to help them create prosperity- microfinance institutions can provide that.
Credit scores were discussed at the microfinance meeting last week. One person pointed out that a large American bank just announced that they weren’t loaning to anyone with a credit score below 800, in other words: they aren’t lending. Microfinance institutions are lending, the largest U.S. microlender requires a credit score of just 575. U.S. microfinance institutions make loans to individuals ranging from $500- $50,000. They offer loans and other products such as financial literacy to individuals from all walks of life.
It’s very common in the U.S. to have a client walk into a microfinance institution with a bag full of tiny pieces of paper and request a loan. Traditional banks would quickly turn the client away. At an MFI, a loan consultant will sit down and go through each piece of paper to create a cash flow, help create a business plan and refer the entrepreneur to other agencies to get appropriate licensing. An MFI loan consultant will do everything they can to give the borrower the credit they need.
Domestic microfinance is in a position to begin scaling up to meet the needs of more low-medium income borrowers. Individuals from all walks of life can find themselves in need of the kinds of services a U.S. MFI can offer. Services like $500 credit builder loans, or help with creating a business plan, larger loans for business capital and inventory, and other types of financial literacy services. Microfinance provides individuals with the power to be self-sufficient and to create a legacy and life of prosperity. Domestic microfinance is playing a part in fulfilling this dream for entrepreneurs from coast-to-coast.
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Erica Dorn is a Kiva Fellow researching U.S. microfinance in New York City.
7 comments 27 April 2009
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