Posts filed under ‘Cambodia’
Coming to you from 37,000 ft.
After months of preparations and planning I am finally on my way. As I write this the map on the TV screen tells me I am currently over Pueblo, Colorado on the first leg of a three part trip from New York, USA to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I will be in Phnom Penh for five months as a Kiva Fellow and will be working with Kiva’s partner agency HKL.
While I am very excited to listen and learn from both the staff members at my host MFI, HKL and the borrowers they serve I have a certain amount of trepidation concerning the affect the global recession will have on the local economy. During our Kiva Fellows training a few weeks ago the subject of how microcredit repayment rates would fair in the coming months and years was brought up. Since then, I have been thinking about what this in the context of how it will affect Kiva Borrowers in Cambodia. The first question I had was how are the lives of people selling fish, firewood or growing food connected to bankers in New York and London? While at first this boggled my mind, after thinking about it for a little while, the connection became very clear and very scary.
My train of thought went something like this: a bank in New York lays off a worker … that worker then buys fewer things, (clothes included)…the clothes store that particular banker used to buy from now has less business and has to close a few stores and orders fewer products from its suppliers … its suppliers in Cambodia are getting fewer orders in so they also have to lay off a person … that person’s spouse, who had previously used their small loan to sell fish as a second income is now the sole provider for the family … they can’t afford to payback the loan that they had previously had no problem repaying. Four quick steps and we go from skyscrapers to people like the borrows on Kiva’s website. This interconnectivity, both positive and negative, that our global economy has given each and every person in every country constantly amazes me.
While I am by no means a microcredit expert, I do know that one of the reasons that repayment rates are so high is that many of the loans are a once in a lifetime opportunity for people to lift themselves and their families to a better life. This means that if repayment rates start to slip in the microcredit industry it is not because people are out buying things they shouldn’t, it most likely means that their financial situation has become really bad and that they have no other choice. I think most of us have been in situations where we hit a time of financial trouble, weren’t able to pay all of our obligations on time and needed just a little help until we could make the needed adjustment and get to the light at the end of the tunnel. For many, this help could come in the form of a bank, family, or a second mortgage. Unfortunately, for those who have been borrows at microcredit agencies, this type of help usually is not an option. So in times like these, I want to keep lending on Kiva because the positive effects of $25 loan from New York can be just as easily felt in Cambodia and across the world as the negative effects of a bank in New York.
I look forward to sharing my experiences and all that I learn in the the coming five months!!!
Join HKL’s lender team here and show your love for my host MFI!!!
A Fistful of Dollars, Behind the Scenes: Volunteer Editor Helps Kiva Entrepreneur Reach Her Goal
Like the windshield on a motor-taxi in Phnom Penh rush hour, transparency is vital to Kiva’s survival. To give interest-free loans, lenders deserve to know that every cent of their money is being distributed exactly as promised, whilst borrowers have the right not to be misrepresented.
An important aspect of this transparency, and one which Kiva takes very seriously, is the integrity of the data on its website. Allowing inaccurate data is the first step towards encouraging fraud on the site, which would have severe reputational consequences for Kiva.
A key data check is performed between the time the loan is posted by the MFI, and when it goes live on the website ready for funding. At this point every loan is reviewed by one of a team of over three-hundred online volunteers. These language gurus work from all over the world to translate loans posted in foreign languages and edit those posted in English by Kiva’s field partner microfinance institutions.
This is a crucial link in the chain of events, not only because it ensures that Kiva lenders can understand business postings and thus make informed choices, that lenders are represented with dignity and clarity, but also because it is the one time that every single loan is scrutinized. Editors can, and often do, flag issues ranging from missing information in the loan description, double-postings, loan amount discrepancies, inconsistencies or problems with the borrower picture, to potentially controversial loans, such as a loan for a cockfighting business.
The Editing and Translation volunteers range from a high school microfinance club, to returned Peace Corps volunteers who want to continue contributing to the country where they were stationed, to young mothers home with their children who want to reach out to make a difference, to retired English teachers and technical writers. They are located on six continents around the world.
In my last blog I posted a video which followed a loan from London to Cambodia (A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story Of A Kiva Loan). The client that featured in the video was the smiley and exceptionally accommodating Van Makara, whose loan was posted by field partner AMK and selected by Danielle Lieu and my other ex-colleagues in London to be the recipient of their $25.
When the loan was posted to the Kiva website by Sophanith at AMK, it landed in the work-queue of Lorne Warwick, a retired high school english teacher. He immediately got to work checking the loan posting and editing the English to make it easily comprehensible (perhaps he should have edited this introduction too). His edits can be seen below.
Lorne Warwick has edited over six hundred loans in the past four months alone. And while no-one will ever really understand the complex algorithms running within Danielle Lieu’s brain that made her pick Mrs Van Makara for her first Kiva loan, it’s certain that Lorne’s edits did a fantastic job of making the loan posting infinitely more readable (ideal for people who are sifting through Kiva loans in the office when they should really be working).
Lorne Warwick: An Editor and a Gentleman
Lorne, a keen blogger himself, kindly agreed to write about his involvement in Kiva and what goes into the editing process. This is what he wrote:
Entry by Lorne Warwick, Kiva Volunteer Editor
As the editor of the loan to Mrs. Van Makara, the subject of the excellent video, “A Fistful of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan,” I have been asked to write briefly about my involvement with Kiva and what goes into the editing process.
A retired high school English teacher, my path to Kiva was largely serendipitous. In my first year of retirement, I purposely avoided making any commitments that would impose specific structure on my day, since structure was something that had defined my professional existence for 30 years. Content to take each day as it came, I busied myself with small home-improvement activities (never quite finding time for that major renovation needed in our basement!), an education research subcontract, and some sporadic writing.
My second year found me with a desire for a little more structure, so I began volunteering at a local food bank sorting and shelving donations. The very immediate results wrought by strictly physical effort were and still are quite gratifying. However, as time went on, I began to want to be of more service to others, never forgetting how fortunate I was to have been able to retire while still in my fifties, healthy and financially secure. The thought of paid work held no appeal. After becoming a lender with Kiva, one day I noticed a button on the site that said “Do More,” and to my delight found that the organization was seeking editors. The rest, as they say, is history, and I have now been editing loan descriptions for the past year, usually assigned two sets (with an average of 12-15 per set) each week by Kristy Harrison, one of Kiva’s volunteer coordinators living in England.
Perhaps the most powerful inducement for me in editing loan descriptions stems from my work as a teacher. I always had a special respect and admiration for those students who came to me, not to complain about their mark or try to wheedle a few extra points out of the old man, but rather were genuinely motivated to try to better their academic results. Essentially, they said, “I want to improve my work, and I want you to help me to reach that goal.”
Expressing such a desire meant I was at their service, and, in partnership, as long as they maintained that attitude and commitment, progress invariably ensued – progress not sudden and spectacular, but instead slow and steady. At the end of term, students would sometimes thank me for my help, but I would tell them that they had done all of the hard work – I had merely provided a framework and structure for their efforts.
This is precisely how I feel about Kiva, its mission, and my small role within the organization. The people seeking loans, already vetted and assessed by local Kiva financial partners, are the ones who bring the commitment, the motivation, and the goals to the deal – we are merely the conduit by which those goals can be achieved. Like the students I worked with for so many years, they have my deep respect and admiration, and I am happy to be of service to them.
Which brings me to the other aspect of Kiva that I find so immensely appealing: its model does much to renew the human spirit. I am convinced that the desire to help others exists in most of us, but this spirit of philanthropy needs regular cultivation. For example, many people have specific charities to which they regularly donate, and are quick to respond to pleas for money when natural and human disasters happen. However, these contributions are often made to large and seemingly faceless organizations tasked with dispersing the funds in a responsible and ethical manner. Our involvement in assisting the lives is thereby quite limited. The Kiva model, however, invites on-going participation in the lives of the borrowers, first as we select the region, the entrepreneurial activity and the borrower, and later as we can track the success of the loan through its repayment. The entire process is a steady reminder that we, as individuals, can indeed have a positive effect on the lives of our fellow human beings.
Kiva is an organization powered by a vision that is ideal for the times in which we live. While the events of the world and the actions of our leaders may frequently invite despair, Kiva is a vital reminder of the good that still exists, indeed thrives, in the heart of humanity. I feel privileged to be a small part of its efforts.
_____________________________________________________
Postscript
To view two more examples of loan edits, go to the following links
And to see a short video of live editing as it happens, check out the Cecilia Andoh loan live editing video
_____________________________________________________
If you or anyone you know would be interested in becoming part of the Volunteer Editing and Translation Team at Kiva, visit http://www.kiva.org/about/opportunities/ and follow the appropriate links.
A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story Of A Kiva.org Loan
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve explained the concept behind Kiva to family, friends, and people I’ve met along the way, but each time my explanation is slightly different.
This is because Kiva is really quite difficult to explain. It incorporates frightfully odd concepts such as microfinance, acronyms such as MFIs, faux acronyms (“what does K.I.V.A. stand for anyhow?”), frequently confused verbs “lend” and “borrow”, crossovers between banking and charity, international flows of money, interest and yet no interest, is it a tech start-up or is it a non-profit? It’s both Jim, but not as we know it.
I used to start with the basics: “Kiva is a website…”. But then I thought that makes it sound a bit, dare I say it, cheap, like hamsterdance.com is a website, so then I switched to “Kiva is a web-based non-profit organisation” which is the signal to most people to stop listening immediately and start planning an escape route to the bathroom.
I like to tailor the explanation depending on who the person is, how interested they seem, whether they know terminology such as microfinance or even the internet – in some Cambodian villages knowledge of the former outweighs knowledge of the latter whilst back home in England the opposite is true.
But when it comes down to it, does anyone really understand the Kiva process from start to finish? Well sure they do! But will we ever meet these mysterious people? Probably not.
So before I left my job at Credit Suisse in London, I decided it would be great to try and follow one loan through the system from start to finish, for the benefit of my colleagues who I coaxed into making a loan, and for myself, and for anyone else who is interested.
Three months later and my little project has reached fruition and dropped right off the tree in a sticky mess. An eleven minute video that I’ve effectively been married to for twelve weeks. It haunts my dreams. I’ve developed repetitive strain injury in my left arm from sitting at my laptop.
But I’m thoroughly glad I did it as I’ve discovered a new passion for making and editing videos to add to my long list of hobbies-to-take-up-and-then-drop-months-later. And I’m right-handed anyway.
I hope that you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Note: To watch the video in full screen (recommended) please click on the four arrows in the bottom right-hand corner of the video
To see all of the AMK loans currently fundraising on Kiva.org please click here
Additional note: To link directly to the video please use the following URL: http://www.vimeo.com/2769845
It is the last day at HKL today and I’m heading back to my country-Japan. So I am reviewing what I did in Cambodia. Maybe my contribution is a little different from other fellows due to different background-I’m from Asia.
The reason I became Kiva fellow is to learn Kiva and micro finance and then try to localize Kiva since language barrier is very high for Japanese people unfortunately. Many of my friends don’t loan even if they are interested in Kiva.
Let me note how I reached Kiva. I had a experience to stay in Cambodia 10 years ago. one day, I and my friends went to the Mekong River to see the sunset. But I had some trouble with them at that day and I sat down river side alone.
When I lonely watched the sunset, some local children came near me and found me crying. And then one firl without one arm wiped my tear. At that time there were some children whose parents made them disabled on purpuse in order them to beg money as well as many land mine victims, I heard.
I decided to do something for Cambodian in some ways since she comported my spirit. But I found many of Cambodians got used to receive something by developed countries at the same time. Therefore, I thought they needed something helpful to their independent efforts. That’s why I have been interested in micro finance but unfortunately there was no chance to learn it in Japan.
I didn’t tell my interest to others for long time due to some critical trend for charity and volunteer as hypocrisy. Through I change little by little through charity activities for an orphanage in Philippine with my friends. When I started to tell my friends my interest to micro finance, one of them told me she watched some TV program about a unique NPO in USA. That’s Kiva. I couldn’t reach Kiva if I yet hesitated to talk about my interest, and if I didn’t keep the charity activities. I soon started to think to sell Kiva to Japanese as I have some kinds of confidence I can do it due to my charity experience and network.
So far, I keep a Kiva fellow blog in Japanese as well as in English to introduce Kiva fellow’s activities. Moreover, I have joined a Kiva fan’s community in Japanese SNS. And then, fortunately I have found some camps who are willing to start up ‘Kiva Japan Project’ – a small group to aim at starting up Japanese version of Kiva. We sometimes have meetings by Skype and one day some of them showed me a demo site of Japanese version. I, by myself, am so surprised at this movement! I have never imagined my idea would be real in such a short time. I know we have a lot of issue to try from now. But it’s important keep taking action even though we don’t have enough resource and knowledge. And then we eventually find good chance or somebody’s help. I’m excited to forge ahead the project now.
I have learned never-give-up spirit through fellowship. Actually my life here was not so easy as well. I often felt sick and got cheated. Some experience made me very depressed and unhappy as I post last fellow journal. But I knew even terrible experience is necessary to test myself. Good and bad experience made me think what is my real goal and how much passion I have.
In order to achieve something, I need to overcome some conflict between the ideal and the real. But I believe every experience in Cambodia will open up my future.
I’d like to say special thanks to Kiva and Hatta Kaksekar Limited(HKL). I’m so happy to work as Kiva fellow at the wonderful MFI! I extended my fellowship for 1 week because I found the most favorite time in Cambodia is not visiting some famous places but talking, joking and laughing with HKL staffs.I cannot explain how much I love HKL! There is a full of joy, warmness and happiness.
I hope the more and more Japanese become a part of Kiva and become Kiva fellow in the future.
In the field, I always asked borrowers ‘What’s your dream?’
So, this time, I answer the same question, ‘It’s to connect more friends in the world and help each other.’
This is my last Kiva fellow blog. Thank you very much for reading!
It Costs $5000 To Marry Your Daughter?!?!
In Cambodia there is a popular song called Tov Dondung Kon Key by Khemarak Sereymon. The song is VERY catchy and we hear it EVERYWHERE. The best part of the song is the story. It’s about a guy who has this crush on a girl who he meets at the market. When he goes with his mother to meet the girl’s parents so that he can ask them to marry her, the girl’s family asks for $5000 as a dowry. Unfortunately, even if he sold his rice field and cows he would not have enough money, so he sings about his agony.
Here’s a question for you Kiva lenders, if he asked for a loan would you support him?
I used the song to make a video of our recent visit to Takeo Province:
This was my first overnight trip and it was amazing. We went into areas that were much more remote than I had ever been. On our second day, we had to walk a kilometer just to reach the Village Bank meeting. It’s also harvest time so we saw many farmers and farm workers harvesting the rice.
The best moment of the trip was when Kieran asked one of the borrowers what they would do if they couldn’t get a loan from AMK. We then asked the same question to the other clients we met. Many of them said they would turn to private lenders who charged 10-20% interest a month (compared to the 3% a month AMK charges). Cambodia has 18 microfinance institutions, but AMK goes into the most remote areas where other MFIs don’t go because of the costs involved to service these borrowers. For many borrowers, if AMK didn’t go out there they would either turn to loan sharks or they would not borrow the money necessary to improve their lives. AMK chooses to serve these clients because of their mission:
“To help large numbers of poor in Cambodia to improve their livelihood options through the sustainable delivery of appropriate and viable microfinance services”
If you think AMK is doing great things you should definetely check out their loans that are currently fundraising on Kiva. Also if you think AMK is awesome as much as Kieran and I do, you should join the AMK Fan Club!
Loneliness in front of Immigration Office with tears
It was very first time in my life I confused so much what is common sense.
I went to Immigration Office in Phnom Penh to get my passport with newly extended visa a few weeks ago. But an Immigration Officer said there wasn’t my passport. I couldn’t believe what she said. She said an officer whom I submitted my passport to the day before that day, wasn’t the officer in charge of visa extension, and she had no idea with my passport. What?! The guy was not officer in charge of visa extension? Why could that horrible situation happen? It was too hard to believe.
One day before that day, I couldn’t find where Visa Extension Department in Immigration Office and asked one guy I met there. He said’ OK. Come here, please.’ And then he asked me ‘Which country is your passport?’, ‘Japanese’, ‘It costs $55 and you would receive new visa after 2 o’clock tomorrow.’, ‘ It should be $45.’, ‘ No, $55.’
I had no choice at that time since my visa was almost over. I had too little time to give up to apply that day. The guy somewhat dubious but I thought the price maybe changed. It often happens in Cambodia. Finally I paid $55.
When I was at a loss to hear no my passport at the Visa Extension Department, one other Officer in charge of Visa Extension, said to me the guy I submitted my passport to had my passport. But he didn’t know where he was at that time. Why was it possible that he went out of Immigration Office with my passport? The officers knew the guy had my passport, it means they knew the guy cheated me. Why didn’t they accuse the guy and try to get my passport back to them? I was almost dead of anger to everybody in Immigration Office. It’s really unbelievable. What should I do without passport here? I started to feel insecure.
Fortunately I had the guy’s phone number just in case, called him and got his answer. He said ‘ Why you didn’t come to the office at 2 o’clock?’
That was true he had said my visa would be ready at 2 o’clock the next day. But I didn’t think it was a appointment with him. Did it mean after 2 o’clock visa is ready as I should have gone there at 2 o’clock? Why was I blamed by him? His word made me really unhappy. Anyway, he said he had my passport and would come back to Immigration Office. The only one thing I could do was to wait for him back. I didn’t know he would really come back or not. My worry became bigger and bigger.
While I was waiting for the guy, the officer in Visa Extension Department told me this was my fault since I didn’t go to Visa Extension Department. I got mad to hear that again. Is it my fault to ask an officer in Immigration the way in Cambodia? Was it a common sense here? But I couldn’t show my almost bombing indignation because I needed his help to ask the guy giving me back $10. Yes, the guy cheated price as well. Actually it cost only $45. He cheated $10.
Unfortunately the officer said ‘It is out my business. If I say so, my colleague would get angry with me.’ His words made me really mad. ‘Don’t you have any pride of your job, terrible man?’ I refrained the words in my mind. They don’t care for non-Cambodians, but their folks.
Actually I found some Cambodians never care of such kind of moral. They seem to think non Cambodians should pay money for them in any ways. They always charge expensive price to non Cambodians. Of course I truly understand this country is so poor that people need help. But I feel annoyed with their attitude of getting used to just get receiving something by foreigners. When they see foreigners, just ask us money. In this country, we have no choice but to obey this culture heavily tainted by corruption.
Even though I asked help many times to the officer in charge of Visa Extension, he went back home leaving me alone finally.
I didn’t know whether the guy would bring my passport or not and whether I could get my money back. I was so nervous and uneasy. I wondered whether to get my passport stolen?
I really needed someone beside me to make me easy.
Although I asked a HKL staff who took me to Immigration Office by motorcycle to wait for more 5 minutes, he also left me alone. I couldn’t explain how sad I was seeing of his motorcycle going. But I knew he wanted to go back home. I just needed to accept it.
The waiting time alone made me become so anxious and uncomfortable. I felt quite alone. No energy with my body. Eventually, I couldn’t keep standing.
I’m sure my face at that time was so terrible and ugly. ‘I came here for Cambodian people. Why did they treat me like this? I would never come back to this terrible country, never, NEVER!!!’ refrained negative words in my brain.
The waiting time seemed forever. I tried not to think negatively and to do something. I checked the time quite often with mobile and then tried to call somebody, but didn’t finally since I felt nobody could help me.
Nothing to do in front of Immigration. Just watching cars and motorcycle were coming and going with empty feeling and disappointing at Cambodian society.
After my million-times calls, the guy miraculously came back to Immigration Office with my passport. The visa was completed the procedure fortunately. He didn’t show any guiltiness and didn’t give me back $10.
‘ Why did you cheat me. Give me back $10.’
‘ I don’t have $10′ now’,
‘ Liar! You should have.’
‘ You can check my body!’
Childish talk. But I was so serious.
Actually, $10 wasn’t so big money for me, but I didn’t want to obey this terrible society with bribe.
I suddenly remembered some Cambodian friend had told me when I get cheated, I should think to have made donation or paid lesson bill to learn Cambodia. In the case of my $10, should I think so? No, I’d love to help Cambodian people, but not in these ways!
Never ended talk with the terrible guy, finally I started to cry getting frustrated by him and myself.
‘I work here to help Cambodian. Why do you cheat even such people doing their best for your country?!’
He looked around others looking at us and said, ‘I’ll pay it tomorrow. Don’t cry.’
Of course I didn’t believe his word. But I had no choice. There is no help and it was getting dark. I could not check his body and check how much he had. Finally I got back to the office without money back.
After 2weeks from this horrible day, I was cheated again and lost my money. Although I truly know not everybody cheat me, the horrible experiences impacted my motivation very negatively. To work for developing countries is much harder than I expected in my country. And then I found I need to complete my mental preparation and never give up to achieve my goal no matter how horrible experience I would have.
To keep working in Cambodia, I need to overcome my experiences and never lose my motivation for this beautiful country.
The Benefits of PA2
As many of you Kiva lenders have noticed, Kiva recently upgraded the administration system that Field Partners use to post businesses and report repayments. The partner administration system, aka PA2, is where Field Partners post businesses onto Kiva and report on the status of each loan. This was a major redesign of the site and it has brought a bunch of great new features that benefit both lenders and Field Partners. For those of you who haven’t been reading all of my posts (shame on you!) I am a fellow at AMK and HKL, and I’ve also been working closely with the other two Cambodian MFIs, CREDIT and Maxima, to help them with the transition to PA2. Having been a fellow in a PA1 world and now getting to see PA2 for awhile firsthand, I wanted to give you lenders some perspective of PA2 from the field!
- Now, Field Partners, aka Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), report the exact repayment schedule for each Kiva loan – Previously it was just assumed that loans were on a monthly schedule. In the new system, MFIs can report the exact dates of when a loan payment is expected. This lets MFIs post loans on all types of schedules such as end-of-term, weekly, bi-weekly, etc. If the MFI wanted to set a schedule in which the borrower pays back the loan only on the days when Saturn and Uranus are in alignment, this can now be done on Kiva! Unfortunately, none of the members of the Astrological Microfinance Association have joined Kiva yet…
- MFIs now report the exact status of each loan every month – Every month each MFI uploads a list of the total principal paid for each Kiva loan. This is great for Kiva and Kiva lenders because it can help them get a better sense of what exactly is happening on the ground and identify any loans and/or MFIs that are having a hard time paying back loans. Even though you’re thousands of miles away, you’ll actually know how the borrower is handling the repayment process. If a borrower makes on time payments or an early payment, then you know everything is okay. If a borrower misses a payment, then you know that they might be having problems. The change has been great for MFIs as well. For example, at AMK we do a mix of monthly loans and end-of-term loans. We use to report the status our end-of-term loans manually, but that was a lot of work which took a lot of time. I made a Microsoft Access application for AMK called the Kiva Loan Tracker which can report the exact status of all the Kiva loans onto a CSV file. In PA2 we can just upload that CSV file and our work is all done in just a few minutes! Sweet.
- MFIs Repay Kiva Lenders When the Borrower Makes a Repayment - The MFI repays Kiva when the borrower makes a payment. This helps MFIs because now they do not have to repay Kiva lenders on a different schedule than the loan terms. This is important because it prevents creating liquidity/cash flow issues for MFIs, which is a serious problem for many of the smaller MFIs. This is also great for Kiva lenders because if a loan receives an early payment then the Kiva lender gets repaid early also. This happens quite often at AMK, especially with many of the end-of-term loans. I’ve noticed many AMK loans being repaid months early.
- The Actual Disbursement Date is Posted – In PA1, the MFI would post a disbursement date on Kiva, which was more of an acknowledgment that the loan has been disbursed and that its status will be reported to Kiva. In PA2 the actual date that the loan was disbursed is reported to Kiva. Many MFIs post loans on Kiva that have already been disbursed. They do this because for them it is the only way to incorporate Kiva into their operations. Many MFIs front the money for these loans, hoping that they will get funded on Kiva. At AMK a loan description is written by the client officer when a client applies for a loan and then the picture is taken at the loan disbursement by the Area Manager. This information is then sent to the head office in Phnom Penh by taxi. This prevents AMK staff from having do to an extra visit to the client, which would be a waste of resources. The last thing Kiva wants to do is to be a burden on the MFI, which could inadvertently increase interest rates.
- Google Gears – The Kiva engineers incorporated google gears into PA2. This is EXTREMELY helpful for MFIs, because many of them have VERY unreliable internet connections. When I arrived in Cambodia, the internet at my MFI was down for almost a week. This was a very painful experience if I was posting a business, because if the internet went out in the middle of a business posting, we would have to start all over once the internet came back on. In PA2, if the internet goes out, a draft is stored which you can then return to at a later time. As I’m writing this, the internet just went out and Chan Ry, the HKL Kiva coordinator, was in the middle of posting a business. Now he doesn’t have to start that post from scratch! Hurrah! Google Gears also stores part of PA2 on the computer of the MFI which lets the site load quicker. If you guys can remember the days of dial-up modems, then you’ll know how slowly webpages load at some of the MFIs (that’s if they load…)
- We Can See Your Comments – PA2 has a page where we can see all the comments from lenders. This is helpful because it makes it easier for Field Partners to respond to your comments.
- Separate Server – Occasionally Kiva lenders get really excited and bombard the Kiva website looking for loans that they can lend to. Once in a while, this causes the Kiva webservers to crash. In the past, when this would happen MFIs wouldn’t be able to post new loans. Now PA2 is stored on a separate server, so if Oprah decides to share her love for Kiva on national television again, MFIs can keep on posting.
- Increased Transparency – I’ve been helping all four Cambodian MFIs make the switch to PA2 and I’ve realized that PA2 has created a much greater sense of transparency. The four Cambodian MFIs are not committing any fraud. I can state this for a fact because each MFI gave me access to their data. The more real information Field Partners send Kiva, the easier it will become for Kiva to spot any signs of trouble or fraud. In PA2, Field Partners also report the exact account number for each loan, so when Kiva does an audit of a Field Partner it will be easier to spot any signs of trouble. My Loan Tracker makes sure that information is accurate by taking the exact data from their Management Information System, so when a business is posted the names and account numbers are exactly the same on Kiva as they are in the MIS of the MFI. In the past we had hard times finding information on some Kiva loans, because the names were translated slightly differently.
Some Kiva lenders have been asking Kiva why MFIs cannot send repayments on a weekly basis, so that they could get their repayments quicker. One lender even compared the new system to sports announcers from the 1930s who called away games on the radio using tickertape. The truth is microfinance, at least in Cambodia, works at a pace similar to tickertape. Here at AMK, the central office receives data from the branches at the end of the month. At HKL, the branches send data to the main office every two months. The reason is that these MFIs do not currently have the necessary infrastructure to receive real time data. At HKL the data is put on a CD and sent to the main office by taxi. Real-time Kiva updates would be great but it is not feasible (at least not yet). Kiva and the MFIs are the doing the best they can given the circumstances. Until the network infrastructures of these MFIs is improved (which will hopefully happen in the coming years) there will always be a lag between the date of transaction and when it is reported to the lender. But as the infrastructures of the countries that Field Partners operate in improves, Kiva can start asking for more information quicker.
Because this new system is requiring MFIs to report information quicker than they normally do for Kiva and for their own operations, PA2 could become a burden for some MFIs. The last thing Kiva wants to do is hurt the efficiency of the operations of any of its Field Partners. This is why Kiva gives MFIs a 15-day grace period for when they upload the status of each loan at the end of each month. I’m currently working at two Field Partners, AMK and HKL (I just started at HKL). AMK has a network that allows me to connect to the servers at each of the branches and download the data for each loan. My Loan Tracker works very well there. At HKL they don’t have a network like that. We’re working around that by getting branches and sub-branches to send their data through Windows Messenger. Getting the data from the sub-branches with unstable internet connections has proved rather difficult and for those we may have to rely on receiving the data by CD, which can take weeks. This must be even harder for MFIs where the internet is worse.
PA2 has come a long way in the last few months. I’ve been testing it out since August and PA2 is much more stable now that it was a few months ago. The Kiva engineers should really be commended for their hard work in getting this up and running. Though there are still a few bugs, I’m sure the Kiva exterminators engineers will get rid of them in no time. Also, once MFIs get use to the new posting process many of the errors in the payment schedules will disappear.
If you still need some more info on PA2 you can read all about it here, here, and here.
Reservoir Microloans
In my first week at Kiva’s rising-star field partner, AMK Cambodia, I was lucky enough to go on a two-day trip to the Kampong Cham province with the aim of meeting some Kiva clients and taking some photos for the AMK marketing department.
Over the 36 hours I took around 1500 photos – partly because Cambodians are super photogenic, and partly because 95% of my photos look as though Sambo the Phnom Penh elephant took them (he lacks opposable thumbs). With his eyes shut.
I made this short video of a loan being disbursed to the Sreymom Suong Group. They were pleased to become Kiva clients for the first time, even if it did mean having to pose for a photo or two. It’s not quite Tarantino, but it’s certainly in a similar ballpark.
Below are some of my favourite photos from the trip, if you like them you can go to this flickr slideshow to see the rest.
To see more AMK loans that are currently fundraising on Kiva, go here
Using GPS to Map Out Borrowers
In my last post, I talked about visiting a client with Phanith, the AMK Kiva coordinator. The client officer (a.k.a. loan officer) was not available to take us, so we relied on a hand written map that got us lost many, many times. We had to ask almost every villager we saw, before we finally got to the client.
Getting lost in a village got my mind thinking about how nice it would be if we had an actual map with the locations of clients and how to get to them. So I spoke to Paul, the CEO of AMK, about how we could give GPS devices to our client officers. This would let us track them as they go to each village bank and client, creating one massive map of Cambodia with the locations of every AMK client. The benefits of such a map include:
- Client officers and other branch staff are often rotated to other branches as a fraud preventive measure. When a staff member arrives at their new branch, they could use the map to help them locate clients, instead of having to rely on other staff members at the new branch.
- Staff from the auditing department could easily locate clients, allowing them to do spot checks on loan amounts and loan payments to help reduce fraud.
- The research department could use the map data to keep better track of clients to further assess AMK’s social impact.
- Organizations that are partnering with AMK to provide highly beneficial services to AMK clients, for example the water filter company IDE, can use the map to find clients instead of having to rely on AMK staff members to direct them.
- Kiva Fellows could use the map to easily find Kiva clients and report back to lenders on their status.
Paul liked the idea and asked me to try it out. I got a GPS device and took it with me on my last village visit with Phanith and Kieran. In case you haven’t already checked it out, Kieran made an awesome video of our journey out there. I also made a video of the trip using Google Earth and the data from the GPS device. We were going to figure out how to sync these two videos together, but instead we made separate videos and set them to the same music 
If you think AMK is doing great things you should definetely check out their loans that are currently fundraising on Kiva. Also if you think AMK is awesome as much as Kieran and I do, you should join the AMK Fan Club!
The odds are 1 in 14 million
Wow, this Kiva world is small. The other day, while I was attending a United States Presidential election-day event with a good portion of the other expats in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I noticed a woman just as teary-eyed as me as the results rolled in for President Elect Barack Obama. Both overwhelmed with emotion, we gave each other a hug out of pure joy. Then we just started talking, launching into a familiar round of questions you ask when you live or travel abroad.
Kiva Fellows at the Foreign Correspondence Club in Phnom Penh (left to right): Teresa Dunbar, John Briggs, Sanjaya Punyasena, Kieran Ball
“So are you traveling or do you live here?” “Where are you from?” “Where have you traveled?” “Do you recommend any countries or cities to visit?” “Are you traveling by yourself?”
After about 15 minutes into the conversation, the question that might have opened it all is asked. “Oh, and by the way, what’s your name?”
We introduce ourselves to each other. Her name is Erica, and she’s traveling with her husband Joe. Erica asks me, “So what are you doing here in Cambodia?”
I say, “I am a Kiva Fellow. Have you ever heard of Kiva?”
I’m about to give her my 10-second Kiva pitch, but she beats me to the punch and says, “Of course, my husband and I are Kiva lenders.”
Completely surprised, I say, “Wow, really? How long have you been lending on Kiva?” I’m expecting they’ve been lending for six months or less, since Kiva has only been around for about three years, and is such a young organization.
She says, “Since about 2006, I think.”
Surprised even more I ask, “How did you hear about Kiva back then?”
“We saw a piece on Frontline, and have been lending ever since,” she replies.
When Erica and Joe first visited kiva.org in 2006, they found that all the loans had been funded. But they persisted and revisited the site a week or two later, lending their first $25. Since making their first loan, they have made more loans. As the loans are repaid by Kiva-funded borrowers, they have re-lent all the money that Kiva has credited back to them – so far their money has been through at least two or three cycles of loan funding and repayment.
So — a Kiva Fellow meeting a Kiva lender somewhere like Cambodia. What are the odds are of this happening? If there are 6.72 billion people in the world (per Wikipedia), and there are about 360,000 Kiva lenders, then the odds of me meeting a Kiva lender are about 1 in 18,611, but I think the odds of a Kiva Fellow meeting a Kiva Lender are more like 1 in 14.4 million. Then again, since I’m a very social person, let’s just put the odds at 1 in 15,000 or 1 in 14 million.
Not so accurate back-of-the-napkin statistics aside, my point is that our meeting seemed like a rare thing. So I thought is I’d take the opportunity to ask Erica and Joe if I could interview them for the Kiva Fellows’ blog. They graciously agreed.
Erica had mentioned that she and Joe were not feeling well the day of the elections. They had caught some nasty bug, and I offered any help or advice on Cambodian medical facilities I could since I had been sick not so long ago. We emailed back and forth a few times, checking to see if they needed anything, but eventually they recovered and we went out a few nights later.
The weather was perfect since it was the tail end of the rainy season, and we opted for a low-key night of art, food, and conversation. We met up at The Meta House which is an art gallery/ movie house, and enjoyed a series of short films. After that, we headed to a lovely outdoor restaurant quiet enough for me to hassle them with questions.
Erica and Joe left Brooklyn behind in June to travel around the world for a year. So far they’ve been through parts of Africa, and India, and Thailand, and are now traveling through Southeast Asia. When I met them, they were staying in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, for about a week. Prior to traveling, Erica worked in the non-profit sector with low-income housing initiatives, and Joe was a software engineer for an e-commerce company.
“How many borrowers do you think you’ve lent to over the years?” I asked them.
Humbly, they say, “We’ve lent to about 30-40 entrepreneurs,” without disclosing the amount of money they’ve lent.
Erica and Joe say that from the loans they’ve made, they have received about 5-6 journals, updates on borrowers posted by Kiva Fellows or partner MFI staff. While they don’t remember any journals distinctly, Erica and Joe say they find them interesting. However, they consider journals to be the icing on the Kiva cake, and not the reason they actually lend.
“So how do you choose who to lend to?” I asked next.
They said at first they started to lend to entrepreneurs that live in countries to which they had traveled. So they split their loans 50-50 between Latin America and Africa, and at the same time they split their loans 50-50 between men and women, to reflect their gender division as a couple.
Joe said for a while he was fond of trying to fund loans to completion, topping them up and enjoying the moment when the loan is completely funded. However, that’s more difficult to do now on Kiva because loans are completed more quickly, and because of a $25 per-lender cap. Now Erica and Joe just want to keep as much of their money lent out as possible, so they can continue to have an impact.
When I asked why they lend, Erica and Joe said that they simply to want help effect positive change in the world. They said that when they’d traveled in Latin America and Africa and talked with people who owned businesses, they heard many stories of how people were being charged very high interest rates by moneylenders. When they heard of Kiva on Frontline, they thought of the small business owners being taken advantage of, and thought that lending through Kiva could provide a great alternative for entrepreneurs in the developing world who needed loans
Erica stressed how she appreciated the difference between what Kiva does and what many charitable and philanthropic organizations do. Access to money from Kiva for developing world entrepreneurs is simply faster, and hopefully easier, for them to get.
Kiva money is channeled through partner microfinance institutions (MFIs). MFIs require all loan applicants to fill out an application, and requirements for Kiva-funded applicants pose little additional burden – a photo, and a follow-up interview. So for entrepreneurs, great effort isn’t needed to get a Kiva-funded loan, and they are able to use their time to get done what they need to do.
This is something philanthropy just doesn’t seem to know how to do, with its numerous application forms and individualized reports that each foundation and lending body requires. They ultimately keep the person from doing what they were given the money to do, which is just not a good use of the person’s time and a drain on financial resources for everyone.
While we sat, a late night monsoon rain hit. We headed for a covered area of the restaurant, and continued our conversation in between moments of shared laughter with the waitstaff of the restaurant as we watched them maneuver between puddles, trying not to get to wet. They were quite skillful and resourceful.
Multi-purpose table umbrellas, I knew I should've packed one.
While Erica and Joe are the first Kiva lenders I’ve met by chance since I’ve been a Kiva Fellow in Cambodia, I’ve met others here. Since the MFI I work with is Kiva’s oldest field partner in Southeast Asia, they have received a few requests from lenders to visit borrowers they have lent to. The MFI is open to the idea, so when a Kiva lender made a request a few months ago, the MFI agreed, and we took the lender into the village to meet the borrower he lent to.
With that story in mind, I had to ask Erica and Joe if they had a desire to ever meet the entrepreneurs they’ve lent to, especially since they could do so while traveling around the world. Their answer was a quick and firm, “No.” But, they also feel that their answer might not reflect what most lenders would say.
Erica said she thought such visits would be a drain on MFIs financial and staffing resources. Moreover, she said that borrowers would likely become overwhelmed, depending on how many lenders came to see them, and that the visits would take the borrower away from his or her work. Erica and Joe said that the money it would take to travel and visit borrowers would be better used on Kiva to fund more loans.
I had so many questions for them, but it was getting late in the evening. And the torrential rain was finally pausing, providing us an opportunity to get home without getting soaked. So I asked one last question, quickly.
“Would you consider taking your money out of Kiva since the economy is doing so poorly?” I asked.
“No,” they said, after thinking it over a bit.
Erica and Joe said that they would only withdraw their money from Kiva if things got really dire — if they really, really needed it. But they just do not foresee themselves needing the funds more than the people to whom they lend.
We finished our food and drinks and paid our bill. As we parted, we wished each other happy travels. I hope Erica and Joe are enjoying their travels, and are doing so in good health. From what they told me, I think they might be in Vietnam about now. I wonder if they’ll meet up with any other Kiva fellows along the way? What would the odds of that be?
Kiva Fellows and Kiva Lenders hanging-out (Left to Right: Teresa, Erica, Joe, and John
HKL promotion
It has passed 1 month since I started work with Hattha Kaksekar Limited(HKL) in Cambodia.
I’d like to post how HKL works, how the staffs are etc because I hope many people know more and feel something familiar with the MFI.
Firstly let me describe one day in HKL. The office hour is 7:30 a.m. To 4:30.p.m. It’s 1 hour lunch time from 12:00. I was so surprised that they start to work so early! HKL has about 60 staffs and most of them are under 30 years old except management team.
Their uniform is something unique. They wear white shirts and blue one by rotation. If they wear wrong color shirts, they should pay penalty $1! When I visited the royal palace, a guide said Khmer lady servant at the royal palace used to wear 7 different color of traditional cloths for a week in past day. They still keep traditional habit in public place now. I realized people here is well disciplined.
Most of the staffs come to office by motorcycle. Motorcycle is the most popular transportation here. Arriving the office, firstly they clock in. When they go to lunch, coming back from lunch and leave the office, they record the time as well.
Although they do extra work, their salary don’t change unfortunately. They normally leave the office around 5:00-6:00 p.m. Some of the staffs study to get their MBA after working hour. HKL staffs are well time-managed and aspiring for their future.
Furthermore, HKL’s staffs are very active and full of young power.
Especially, a kiva coordinator, ChanRy is earnest guy and often works overtime even though only he should do it in his section. He has worked for HKL for 1 year and half and has been in charge of kiva for 8 month. HKL. I made a video interview with him. But I couldn’t update on the web unfortunately. I’d like to try it another time. You can see him in the picture below with a HKL borrower.
He visit borrowers with Kiva Fellow and translate from Khmer to English, post profiles, communicate with Kiva as window person etc. He is very busy all the time. Therefore HKL now has plan to have another kiva coordinator in some branch next year.
Addition to him, there are many friendly staffs in HKL. They go to lunch together every day and talk openly. 7-8 staffs sit on round table and share dishes. Boss and junior staffs all together. Often joking, asking advise for projects, and giving advise.
We
After lunch, they go back to office directly and enjoy chatting, joking and reading newspaper. They love talking and joking. They teach me Khmer and try to learn Japanese. When I learn Khmer number, they always laugh at my poor pronunciation. When they learn Japanese, they always laugh at each other as well. Very small things become very funny here. Around 3-4 p.m. Some young staff often start humming or listen music. They need some break time before a day.
One more story about them, one day afternoon, we heard very big sound suddenly. I wondered what happened there and found a desk of one staff tumbled down due to a heavy desk top computer. But we exactly didn’t know why it happened. So everyone laughed very much. It’s so funny for us the desk suddenly got broken! And then they were joking ‘God says we don’t have to work today’. Any accident become funny story here. People here are really cheerful and jolly. Therefore I enjoy my life here very much even though I don’t understand Khmer very well.
In terms of building, there are few office building in Phnom Penh. Therefore HKL rents a big house and renovate it into office.you can see the picture below.
It means it’s hard to find a room you want to go due to complicated room layout; especially rest room! Female should knock the door and enter into accounting room to go to lady’s rest room due to big rooms with rest room for each in this house. So I feel embarrassed to use rest room every time feeling other staffs’ eyes. In addition, we go pass through a balcony to go to a operational manager’s room. In the beginning, it seemed a little strange for me. But this style is quite normal in Cambodia. There is a kitchen and a dining hall as well. Sometimes a staff makes a Khmer dessert for other staffs. This is the time we have a break for a while and enjoy chatting with sweets. In entrance hall, there is a small mausoleum for wishing success and prosperity. It shows Cambodian culture is affected by Chinese culture very much.
A few weeks ago, HKL announced new staff recruiting on a board near the entrance gate. You can see many people checking the conditions of employment in the picture.
And then HKL has received more than 3,000 applications for 120 positions so far!! Many people still bring application forms and CVs every day. HKL’s achieved to grow rapidly in recent years. It has nine branch offices and 29 sub branch offices now and has plan to set up 2-3 branches in southwest areas in Cambodia next year. HKL is aggressively expanding and strongly eager to become a bank in Cambodia. It is required to increase capital to apply bank license and it will need some years, they estimate. To achieve their goal, HKL is eager to have more lender and to increase kiva loan.
I hope lenders, MFIs and borrowers more deeply understand and communicate each other. So let me keep posting HKL news. On the other hand, I tell lenders information on Kiva to borrowers when I have interview. Borrowers are interested in lender’s job and message. And they says ‘ Thank you so much for every lenders and we wish lenders happiness and success as well!’ ‘The more understandings, the more interests each other. It will bring lenders, MFI, and the borrowers’ growth and happiness in the long term, I believe.
Navigating Monsoon Season by Moto
I’ve been working with CREDIT-MFI as a Kiva Fellow for about a month and a half, and I still feel like I’m getting my feet wet. CREDIT is fairly large with about 360 employees working throughout Cambodia in their 7 branches. I work closely with CREDIT’s two Kiva Coordinators, Sopheap and Vichet, at the head office in Phnom Penh. We work behind the scenes managing Kiva CREDIT clients in CREDIT’s Management Information System (MIS), and on the Kiva website. We translate business questionnaire forms and often journal questionnaire forms (when we do not interview the clients directly) from Khmer to English in order to post on the Kiva website. The other day though, Sopheap and I decided to head out and interview some Kiva CREDIT borrowers ourselves. We decided to head out to the city of S’Ang located about 30 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
The following day I show up at work about 7:30am, we hop into the CREDIT truck and we are on our way. Our goal is to interview 5 clients and be back at CREDIT’s head office by noon for lunch. It takes us about an hour to get to the S’Ang branch office as we drive through the outskirts of the city and into the country side. It is currently monsoon season (June-November), and everywhere is flooded. Rice is growing as far as the eye can see in all shades of green. It rains almost every day, usually in the afternoon, but lately it has been unpredictable since it’s the end of the rainy season when the skies open-up whenever they wants. It is lovely though since it cools everything down, but unfortunately it does bring out all the mosquitoes. Yikes Dengue Fever and Japanese Encephalitis (wish I had convinced the vaccination clinic back in the states to give me the $500 vaccination)!
rice fields of green
We arrive at the S’Ang branch office, drop off the truck and hop onto motorbikes with the branch’s loan officer who works with the clients we will be meeting today. The borrowers we are meeting are reachable only by motorbike since they live down long narrow, dirt (or mud depending on the season) roads surrounded by rice fields on both sides. We break off from the main road onto a dirt road, and weave in and out between an occasional moto, but mainly bicyclists, walkers, and vendors. We drive through the open air market where people are hustling, and I cover my eyes afraid that we might run someone over since the market is quite busy. After about 15 minutes, we arrive at the first borrower’s house, and she invites us to sit down on her front porch. It is made of slatted wood with a thatched roof. It is raised about a foot off the ground in front enabling access to the road. The back is about 5 feet off the ground. The roads are maintained dirt mounds between houses and rice fields. The slatted floors and walls keep the house a lot cooler than the western style cement. The house is airy and relaxing with woven mats to sit on.
CREDIT-MFI Branch Office
First Kiva Borrower interviewed that day.
The interview takes about 30 minutes. We try to ask the best questions getting the information we need to write a proper informative journal in the smallest amount of time. And often, it kills me to finish-up an interview session since with each question, I could ask a million more questions. There is just so much to learn from each borrower about life in Cambodia, their business, their loan, how inflation is affecting them, their dreams for the future, etc. My goal is to bring back as much information as possible to the Kiva lender in a sensitive, but informative manner.
We finish our first interview and hop back on our motos to visit the next client. Sopheap and I are on one moto and the loan officer is on the other in front of us. We follow him since he is the only one who knows where the clients live. We travel further down the dirt/muddy road, and make a left, and then another left, and a few more turns. As we drive, I get off the moto intermittently due to flooded road areas, and at that point it is just easier and safer to walk. With each dry patch, I hop back on the moto with Sopheap struggling to keep up with the loan officer in front of us in fear of getting lost. We dodge smaller mud patches, grazing cows and water buffalo, heaps of dung, the occasional child riding their bike to market or school, all while waving to locals we pass as they smile and wave to us.
S
Finally, after about 45 minutes and many un-navigateble road sections, we lose the loan officer. He is nowhere in sight, but realize at the same time that there is only one path in and out so we press on. After about another 20 minutes, we reach a fork in the path and see the light green uniform shirt of the CREDIT loan officer to the left. We wave and head down an even smaller un-navigatable path to an eventual stare-down with two cows. Hoping they don’t kick us, Sopheap and I move slowly past them so as not to startle them. After about an hour total, we reach the borrower.
The only thing between us and the Kiva borrower are some mean looking cows.
Everyone greets one another with the traditional respectful greeting, “Jem reap suor,” with a slight bow and hands pressed together in prayer-like fashion under your chin. We sit down, and proceed with the interview, asking questions regarding their loan and business. After about a half hour, we finish the interview, and get back on our motos for the dreaded ride back. Sopheap and I check the time and are shocked to find that it is nearly noon. We really need to hurry back to the S’Ang branch office to pick up the truck in order to head back to Phnom Penh.
We finally reach our 2nd Kiva borrower.
We start our moto journey back down the muddy path doing the same dance as before, weaving between muddy potholes, dung, cows, water buffalo and the occasional bicyclist. We do not want to get lost this time. Highly impressed with Sopheap’s moto skills I simply hold-on and hope for the best. My goal was to get off as little as possible since it slows us down too much and we need to get back.
We drive, and finally we come upon an impassible section in the road. As we head towards it,
I tell Sopheap, “I’ll get off.”
“No, no. Stay on.”
“No, I’ll get off.”
“No, no. Stay on. I’m a good driver.”
I say, “No. I’ll get off,” as we head into the mud.
We lean right, then left, and then right again trying to maintain balance, and then our wheels lose traction. The next thing I know I am in a mix of mud, dung, and foliage. The cows are staring at me, and the locals are peering over at us from their lunchtime meals grinning as I try to get up. I look up at Sopheap, and notice that somehow he managed to jump off the moto before it went down, and he is nearly spotless. He asks, “Are you OK? I am so sorry, Teresa.” I say, “I am fine as I look at the mud all over my hands and left side.” We then both start laughing as we stare at the moto lying in the mud.
Sopheap, spotless as can be.
Me, after washing off my hands and arms, but always with my trusty helmet
A woman living in a house nearby comes over, and we borrow a plastic container from her. We get some water from the rice fields beside us, and start rinsing off the moto. We hop back on laughing, hoping not to lose the loan officer again, and knowing that it is just another day in the field during monsoon season.
Kiva in Cambodia: The Comic Book
I’m a new Kiva Fellow volunteering with Maxima, a microfinance institution (MFI) headquartered in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. I arrived in Phnom Penh about three weeks ago, and had the luxury of a week to acclimate before starting at Maxima.
My arrival coincided with a visit to Cambodia by Kiva co-founder Matt Flannery and Kiva Chief Software Architect Zvi Boshernitzan, who were making a field visit to see how Kiva works in the field for partner MFIs and for Kiva borrowers. I went straight from the airport to a dinner at a Phnom Penh restaurant with Matt, Zvi, and other Kiva Fellows serving in Cambodia.
(And what does a new arrival to Cambodia eat, fresh off the plane? Tarantula. Deep-fried, with a side of minty dipping sauce. Tarantula is among the edible insects not uncommon in Cambodia. I’d say it has a nutty flavor, but I’m sure the others who ate it that night have a different opinion.)
During their visit, Matt and Zvi paid visits to all four of the MFIs that Kiva partners in Cambodia. Maxima became a Kiva partner in May of 2007, and is the smallest of the four Kiva partner MFIs in Cambodia. I got to accompany Matt and Zvi on their visit to Maxima, which involved a stop at headquarters, and a trip out to the field to meet Maxima borrowers that were funded through Kiva.
For me, it was a fantastic orientation, an orientation that Kiva Fellows are rarely afforded when they land at an MFI. I took a lot of photos the day of our visit, and once I got back home I found a program on my Mac I didn’t know I had — Plasq’s photo “comic book” generator. I spent a few hours playing around with it, and realized it would be a great way to tell the story of our day visit with Maxima. After a day or two (or three?) or working on it, I finished Kiva in Cambodia, a nine-page photo comic.
Once I’d finished, I was excited. I showed it to Maxima staff, and they liked it (or at least that’s what they told me). I wanted to post it to this blog weeks ago, but ran into a problem shared by almost all Kiva Fellows working in the developing world: limited Internet access. The photo comic isn’t big by broadband standards in the U.S., but in Cambodia, it’s a small giant.
More often than not it can be a huge challenge to upload or download things when connectivity is spotty, dead slow, or both. For anything Internet-related, Murphy’s Law is a constant here: everything goes wrong. (Kudos to all Kiva Fellows who have posted video from the field — you are patient, persevering people!)
In a bind, I turned to Kiva Friends, a diehard group of Kiva supporters. I posted a message on their site asking for Web hosting help with Kiva in Cambodia and my plea was answered by one Fred Isler from Virginia. Fred (of 579 loans, and counting, to Kiva entrepreneurs) graciously agreed to host the comic on his personal site.
Thanks to Fred, I present to you… Kiva in Cambodia, the comic. Click on the image below to view it at Fred’s web site, or click here. Let me know what you think!
Kiva in Cambodia
Asking Kiva Entrepreneurs Questions From Lenders
Last Wednesday Phanith, the AMK Kiva coordiantor, and I were very eager to head out into the field the next day to ask two Kiva entrepreneurs, the Siphat Yang Village Bank and the Chon Erm Village Bank Group, questions that I had gathered from lenders. Unfortunately, when we called the loan officer she told us that she got the dates mixed up, and that she had visited those clients the week before for repayments. Phanith and I knew that we couln’t let you Kiva lenders down, so we weren’t going to let this stop us! We decided to try to find the villagers ourselves… easier said then done.
We went to the Kandal branch office the next day. An area manager agreed to show us the entrance to the village on his way to a disbursement at another village. He drew us a little map and dropped us off at the entrance. Phanith and I hopped onto a moto and headed into the village, only to get lost very quickly.
Phanith tries to decipher the map that was drawn by the AMK Area Manager.
We started asking villagers for directions, but most of them had no idea where these clients lived and tehy mistakingly sent us off in the wrong direction. Finally we found a villager who knew these clients, HURRAY! He hopped on our moto and took us straight to them. Unfortunately, he took us down a road that was in horrible shape. Phanith tried to navigate the large puddles, but then we got stuck in one. Our moto started to lean to the left. Our navigator was smart enough to jump off, but Phanith and I were still on the moto. My leg was holding the weight of the moto and the two stranded passengers. After a minute, my leg gave way and down we went into the puddle. My butt went straight into the puddle. We decided to walk the rest of the way and we eventually reached the house of Siphat Yang.
White Pants, Brown Mud
Here are the answers to the questions asked by Kiva lenders:
Mary Larkin asked:
“Where do the business people get the goods in the first place? Are the goods sent in by mail? Do the business people have to travel to a larger city to buy the goods?”
Siphat Yang gets her goods from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which is about a 45 minute drive on moto from her village. She buys her clothes from Olympic and Chbar Ampil markets.
Yusuke from Japan asked:
“How much does their per day income increase because of loans so far? and why?”
Before Siphat took out a loan she was making about $1.75 a day. Now she makes $2-$2.50. She said that the loan allowed her to buy more clothes to sell. It also allowed her to sells her clothes to factory workers on credit. The workers would then pay her back when they receive their monthly pay.
Yusuke also asked:
“How do they cooperate with each other in the village after getting the loan?”
According to Siphat, whenever a group member cannot make a payment, the other group members must cover the difference. The group member who wasn’t able to make a payment is expected to pay back the other group members when he/she can.
Ms. Siphat Yang and her neighbor check out the Kiva business descriptions of the two loans.
We weren’t able to find Mrs. Chon Erm, so instead we posed our questions to Ms. Taing Im Sum who is another member of Mrs. Chon Erm’s group.
Dan Landrum asked:
“Is it at all a hardship to pay back or does the benefit of the loan truly make for increased profits, so it is easy to make the payments as the plantation grows?”
Ms. Taing Im Sum and Mr. Som Yang, another villager who is a farmer, agreed that the loan terms offered by AMK are very reasonable. They pay 2.8% interest monthly, which according to them is the lowest interest rate available. Mr. Som Yang stated that if AMK didn’t offer loans at interest rates this low, then they would not be able to borrow any money. He also joked that he wouldn’t mind if the interest rate was even lower.
Dan also asked:
“Would it be useful for Mrs. Chon Erm’s group to receive some exchange or training in the various aspects of their business, farming, marketing, etc.?”
According to Mr. Som Yang, an organization called IPM has come to his village to train farmers. They showed the farmers new fertilizer techniques and to limit the amount of chemicals used as fertilizers and pesticides. Before he received the training from IPM, he was able to grow one ton of food per hectare. Now he is able to grow four tons on his hectare of land.
Finally Dan asked:
“Is there anything else we might do to help them prosper?”
I didn’t ask this question to the villagers directly, but I told Ms. Taing Im Sum and the other villagers who gathered around about Kiva. I explained that thanks to Kiva, AMK is able to keep interest rates low. (In the picture below you can see them checking out their Kiva business description and photo). So Dan, one of the best things you can do is to keep loaning on Kiva and supporting other organizations that are not only do good, but also to make a sustainable change.
Ms. Taing Im Sum looks for herself in the photo of her group loan. (She's in the second row, third from the right)
Despite all the difficulty in getting out into the field, this was a lot of fun. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this! For those of you who were wondering, I have washed those pants three times with all types of detergents and bleach, but the stain is still there. Any suggestions? 
To see a list of all the AMK loans that are currently fundraising on Kiva, click here.
If there aren’t any AMK loans on Kiva, you should check out the AMK Fan Club instead!!
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I had the pleasure of meeting Yusuke a few weeks ago. Yusuke was in Cambodia to promote Kiva in Japan through the Kiva Japan Project.
Have you ever wanted to ask a Kiva entrepreneur a specific question?
Well now is your chance!!!
I will be visiting the Siphat Yang Village Bank and the Chon Erm Village Bank Group this Thursday. If you want me to ask the members of the village bank a question, send me an email with your question: sanjaya.punyasena AT fellows.kiva.org
This is the first time I’m trying this, so I might run into some problems. I want to apologize in advance if I am unable to ask your question.
If you could send me your questions before October 15th, that would be great!
Also, if you haven’t voted for Kiva on the American Express Members Project, do so now!!! You only have 10 hours left and Kiva needs 400 more votes to reach second place!!
Interview with Paul Luchtenburg, CEO of AMK
I hope you guys enjoyed the interview. To see a list of all the AMK loans that are currently fundraising on Kiva, click here.
If there aren’t any AMK loans on Kiva, you should check out the AMK Fan Club instead!
Back to Cambodia
Thank you for reading my blog, I’m Kanae, Japanese and Kiva Fellow. Finally I came to Phnon Penh, Cambodia, on Oct. 3rd. The road to here was very long, but I’m very excited to be here again. Yes, I came to Cambodia 9 years ago. At that time, the city looked very dusty and unpaved. Now, there are many pretty restaurants for foreigners and many cars. Therefore, I realized my image of Cambodia is already gone and then I will know current Cambodia in 3months.
Why did I come to Cambodia as KIVA fellow? The reason is I had some experience 9 years ago.
I joined some project with a Janapese NPO (http://www.jhp.or.jp/) and came here at first time. The mission of the project is to build elementary shools in Cambodia. I stayed here for 1 month and met a lot of Cambodian children. They were so cheerful and friendly and I enjoyed to play with them. One day, when we should leave from a school, some children gestured to me ‘Give me your pen!!’ I realized they were get used to be given by foreigners. So I started to wonder donations is really good for them or not. Our goodness really help their lives in the long term? I didn’t have any answer at that time.
A few years later, I got to know Grameen Bank. I was excited about huge possibility of this bank. But there wasn’t any chance to learn microfainance in Japan unfortunately. The only thing I could do is to keep my strong passion about microfainance in my heart. And then, in 2007, one of my friends told me there is a interesting microfinance institution in the USA. This moment dramatically changed my life. I left my venture capital company, flied to San Francisco to have training and came here finally. I believe microfinance accelerates borrowers’ aspiring spirits because borrowers should improve their lives by themselves actively. This point is totaly different from donation.
I’ll learn microfinance and work with a local partner institution for 3 months which has more than 20,000 cliants in all over the Cambodia. Let me report my life here!
Breaking the tri-Cycle of Poverty
Hello! My name is Kieran and I am a Kiva Fellow, sixth iteration. I am currently sitting on a turbulent flight back home to London after an intense week of training at Kiva’s San Francisco offices. I am sad to be leaving, slightly worried about the ancient aircraft I’m on (hoping that the technology is more up-to-date than the Nintendo Gameboy headphones the flight attendant is handing out), but excited about my impending assignment in Cambodia.
The past week has been an eye-opening, exhilarating, and potentially life-changing experience. The outstanding training we received was topped only by the friendliness and generosity of the Kiva staff we met. The enthusiasm and motivation of everyone at Kiva was a hurricane of fresh air. It felt like we’d just joined a little known pop band called The Beatles. You can tell from the buzz as soon as you walk into the office that Kiva is doing great things, and doing them well.
But wait… rewind… I wanted to share a little story about my first unwitting discovery of the concept of microfinance…
In 2006 I was fortunate enough to be travelling in China with my mum (that’s British for “mom” to any readers from the States). We had been there for a couple of weeks but were beginning to tire of the constant pollution in the cities, so we decided to head for the countryside on a public bus. Upon arriving in yet another small town, we realised the only way we were going to see the countryside was to flag down a rickshaw, essentially a three-wheeled pedal bike with a double seat at the back for passengers.
Our guide was in his twenties, eager to take us, and clearly not a smoker, as he proceeded to pedal the three of us up several long hills until we reached the outskirts of the town. He somehow managed to answer all of my mother’s questions about the surrounding sights whilst pedalling and maintaining a flow of oxygen to his lungs. At times, even his Olympic standard legs seemed to tire, and I willingly jumped out to give us a push. Intrigued as to how difficult it must be, I offered to take over pedalling, an offer which he politely refused. It was clearly a matter of pride, but I wasn’t backing down.
After my mum had explained in Mandarin that I simply wanted to have a go as I was considering a career change, he laughed and relinquished his saddle. “Hold onto your hats” I cheerfully joked. Little did I know that seconds later I would be eating my own proverbial hat. I climbed on and began trying to pedal on a relatively flat stretch of road. I say pedal, but that requires there to have actually been pedals, instead of the blocks of shiny wood that took their place. Time and time again my feet slipped off these zero-grip shin-bashers, causing great pain and the loss of much needed momentum. A brief attempt at a hill and it was game over.
It's steeper than it looks ok!
Curious to understand how, or indeed why, he had chosen to effectively take it upon himself to replace the internal combustion engine, my mother peppered him with questions. By the top of the hill we understood that he hired the rickshaw from a guy in the town for 200 Yuan ($25) per month, and that in the summer months this usually generated between 400 and 600 Yuan per month of revenue, but only 300 to 400 Yuan per month in the off-season. Most of his profits were sent home to support his family, leaving him just enough to live on. With a maximum profit margin of $50 per month, this didn’t amount to much.
By the bottom of the next hill we had discovered that to buy his own rickshaw would cost 1000 Yuan, around $150. My mum and I sat in silence, except for the sound of her translating to me, shocked at the idea that such a relatively small amount of money to us, would transform this young man’s life from one of eternally scraping-by to potentially doubling his monthly profits.
Unbeknown to us, thirty years earlier a forward-thinking economics professor had come to a similar conclusion. He went on to found the internationally respected Grameen bank and later earned the Nobel Peace Prize. We just sat like in silence and scratched our heads.
With a quick calculation one could estimate that with a loan of $150 over 12 months, even at 20% flat interest rate (worst case rate taken from Chinese microfinance organisation www.wokai.org), monthly repayments would be $15, which would still have increased his profits by $10 per month as he would not have to pay the monthly $25 hire cost.
This little revelation sparked my interest in microfinance and resulted in me being stuck in the Deep Vein Thrombosis-prone position I am at this moment. The idea behind microfinance is to allow people, like our rickshaw guide, access to traditional financial services so that they have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty, or in this case, the tricycle of poverty (just in case you didn’t still hadn’t got the title of this blog).
The unique concept pioneered by Kiva enables people like me, my mum, or anyone with internet access, to lend to thousands of people like this, to know exactly who we are lending to, and for what purpose, and even better, to find out what happened as a result of our loan. Our driver probably wouldn’t have accepted our money if we’d offered to give him $150 – I could tell by his reluctance to let me have a go at pedalling that he was a proud man. But he may have accepted a loan. Unfortunately at the time we had no way of facilitating a loan agreement, and we regret that. But thanks to Kiva, we are now able to make such partnerships with similar entrepreneurs all over the world.
Thank you Kiva!
PS I’ll try and keep my next blog shorter!
Phnom Penh Notes: Sweaty Jeans, Magic, and Black Smoke
After 7 movies, 4 made-for-TV dramas, 1 documentary, 2 Sudoku games, 1 confiscated Swiss army knife, 1 – $70 extra baggage weight charge, 5 airplane meals of chicken, chicken, and more sai mouan (chicken in Khmer), and 3 different planes, I am finally in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I believe I am the last of the Kiva Fellow 5 Class reporting for duty, but don’t quote me on that, and I just can’t believe I am here after all those months of jealousy and admiration from reading the other fellow’s blogs and notes from the field.
I arrived yesterday morning around 9am to the smile and hand shake of Vichet, one of the Kiva Coordinators at CREDIT – MFI, the MFI I will be working with starting Monday. It was comforting to find someone meeting me since I had not been to Cambodia before. We hopped in the car unfortunately without my bags, and we drove directly to CREDIT where I met some colleagues, and exchanged names, ages, job duties, and aspirations of language acquisition (Sopheap and I think may exchange Khmer lessons for Spanish lessons. We’ll see). They then dropped me off at the guesthouse I will call home for the next 2 weeks or until I find a place to really call home.
My impressions of Phnom Penh have shifted and taken on new shape over the past 24 hours. If I had sat down to write this early last night, you would have read about the potential trash problem in the city with plastic bottles, cans, food items, and other things strewn along the sides of most roads. You would have read about the oppressive heat and humidity, and slight unidentifiable smell in the air. You would have read about the traffic problems brought on by lack of basic infrastructure and city planning. You basically would have read a big, cranky, grouchy, western-centric story since I had not slept well in the plane, and the airline had lost my bags leaving me sweating in jeans. Have you ever experienced 95 degree weather with nearly 100 percent humidity in jeans? I don’t recommend it, and I can guarantee, if you ever are, you will be cranky too.
To my relief, I called the airport and my bags came later in the evening. And of course when I went to pick them up, they were the last two to pop out from behind the conveyor belt curtain at the airport. For some reason fate always seems to enjoy teasing you when you are grouchy in sweaty denim.
I lugged my bags up 2 flights of stairs, grabbed the coolest outfit I packed and got ready for a late dinner. I headed out down the street, and all of sudden the street turned into a magical place with twinkling lights, warm breezes, kids laughing and playing badminton, tuk-tuk drivers playing cards waiting for the next expat needing a ride, all with lightning lighting up the distant sky. Seriously, it was like some magical fairyland had swallowed the city I knew only a few grumpy hours early.
Somehow my new world morphed with simply a change of clothes and the reclamation of my personal items. Beyond morphing without notice, Cambodia is simply another world, another culture, and I have a lot to learn.
Some small, but important things I have noted so far that I need to get used to. The light switches are opposite here (or at least in my guesthouse). Up is off and down is on. Your normal walking pace will have you sweating after 5 paces, so slow is good. Despite wanting to crank the air conditioner on, it will make you sick so just give in and acclimate. The water, despite it looking really clean and clear, can still kill you. And if the water doesn’t kill you, crossing a major road on foot might since traffic laws are non-existent here (But really, there is no correct side of the road to drive on, and it is insane, than add an elephant or two). The moto drivers will always enjoy charging you a little extra so honed bargaining skills are needed. Lunch is between noon and 2pm for a reason, it is simply too darn hot to move. When a drop of cool water falls from the sky hitting you in the face, it means to find shelter fast since the streets are about to turn into rivers. And last, but certainly not least, when you are eating lunch in a lovely open-air café, and you see black smoke rising out of the Wat (Buddhist temple) next to you and you think it is a slightly smelly mid-afternoon incense ritual that you will learn about later, hold your breath because it is actually a body being cremated.
I learned the last one the hard way, and I am still trying to work the smell out of my memory.
I start with CREDIT-MFI on Monday, and I can’t wait to share with you further when I do.
phnom penh traffic
Targeting the Poorest of the Poor
In Cambodia, AMK has the lowest average loan balance per borrower. According to MIXMarket, AMK’s average balance at the end of 2007 was $86 per borrower. To put that in perspective the second lowest was AMRET at $164, which is nearly 90% higher. HKL, Credit MFI, and Maxima (the other three Cambodian MFIs working with Kiva) have an average loan balance of $603, $564, and $514 respectively. Currently, 93.4% of AMK’s loans are below $300 and their average loan balance is now $114. AMK chooses to keep their average loan balance low. They limit individual loans to $500 and they limit the amount an individual can take out as part of a group loan to $150. The reason they do this is because of their mission statement:
“To help large numbers of poor in Cambodia to improve their livelihood options through the sustainable delivery of appropriate and viable microfinance services”
In my last blog post I mentioned how most MFIs were trying to increase their average loan balances to improve their efficiency. AMK, on the other hand, has created a business model that relies more on lending to as many clients as they can. This allows them to use their capital to reach the poorest villagers in Cambodia. The data shows that this business model is working. In 2007, their loan portfolio started at $5 million dollars and grew to over $10 million. From this they made a net income of $823,222 and their return on assets was 9%, which is beyond incredible considering the average loan size. Also, I should mention that AMK is currently owned by Concern Worldwide and Concern Worldwide UK. They have returned all of the profits to AMK as retained earnings, so all the money earned by AMK is reinvested back into the business.
Road in Toek Noem Village
AMK, just like every financial institution in the world right now, is having a hard time getting additional capital because of the credit crunch. Because of this, they are hoping to raise the percentage of their loan portfolio that comes from Kiva. Right now it is about 2.6%. For awhile AMK had limited the number of group loans they were posting because it was too difficult to keep track of them so they could report payments to Kiva. Group loans are usually a mix of monthly-installment loans, end-of-term loans, and credit line loans, so each group loan would have to have payments manually reported after each clients payments were tracked. This was a shame because the group loans are AMK’s best way of reaching the poorest villagers in Cambodia. Group loans can now easily be tracked with the new loan tracker I created for AMK, so they are now going to increase the number of group loans they post on Kiva. You can find them by looking at the loans with the smallest loan size per entrepreneur that are currently fundraising on Kiva.
If you really love what AMK is doing in Cambodia you should join the AMK Fan Club, a Kiva Lending Group which is part of the new Kiva that is about to be rolled out very soon. If you can’t wait leave your e-mail address as a comment and I’ll invite you to the group!
Where’s my parachute!
Hello all! My name is Mark Disston and I am the newest Kiva Fellow to head to the field. I am writing this on my flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where I will be joining Maxima Mikroheranhvatho. Maxima is one of the smallest MFIs in Cambodia but has ambitious plans to expand their services. I have the fortune of teaming up with Amy Killian, the current Fellow at Maxima, whose work most of you have likely already read about (if not, see Straws and Sandpaper – my favorite post).
The past week has been a whirlwind. In quick succession I bought my ticket to Phnom Penh, quit my job, packed and subletted my apartment, and sprinted to my plane. Whew. However the upside was that in not sleeping for the 50 hours before my flight I managed to be devoid of all jet-lag when I landed. I just slept the whole flight.
Since I haven’t done anything as of yet, there isn’t much to post. But this is what I’m excited for (no particular order):
1. Meeting the borrowers and hearing their stories – not only those about how Kiva loans helped them, but really any story they feel is important enough to share. I think these small interactions will help me learn the most about the people of Cambodia.
2. Understanding the mechanics of how Kiva loans are implemented on an operational, financial, and technical level.
3. Seeing first-hand the impact, positive and negative microfinance has in people’s lives.
4. Living in a developing country with a scary past – definitely a learning experience.
5. Meeting others who share my passion.
6. Having time to consider my own path in the future and whether living and working in the developing world is something I want to continue.
7. Discovering when I’ve returned to the U.S. how much this experience has changed me in ways I didn’t notice day-by-day until I was re-immersed back into New York culture.
Well here I go! 10 minutes out and descending into Phnom Penh. I’m really not sure what to expect in the months ahead. I wish I had done more research! My thoughts are stuck on the half-completed to-do list sitting in my pocket and the myriad of things I forgot to pack. Oh well. The safety of home is behind me. I’ve made the leap – nothing to do now but enjoy the ride. I just hope I remembered to pack my parachute!
An Excel-lent Time in Cambodia
For the past few weeks I have been doing a lot of data entry. Panith, the AMK Kiva coordinator, and I have been going through all the Kiva business descriptions so that we could enter their account numbers into an excel worksheet. This will allow us to easily track payments of all the Kiva loans. (AMK just got out of pilot stage with Kiva, so they’re still incorporating it into their business.) If I had been doing this for another job I probably would have been bored out of my mind, but going through all the data for three of AMK’s provinces turned out to be quite interesting. It gave me a chance to do a very, very basic analysis of the impact of microfinance by looking at the loan histories of many clients. Many clients have paid off one, two, or even three loans, taking out a higher balance each time. Some clients started out with loans as low as 10,000 KHR (less than $2.50). I was actually very surprised to see the number of loans that were less than $10. Through village banks and group loans, AMK has allowed their “poorest-of-the-poor” clients to build up their credit history so that they can eventually take out larger individual loans.
Since I’m on the topic of numbers, I should share this wonderful story with you guys. While I was out in Kandal province for a Kiva-specific training, I heard an interesting story about interest rates. AMRET is the largest MFI organization in Cambodia. They offer loans at a 4% monthly-rate. AMK started offering loans in one of the villages that AMRET operates in. AMK offered loans at a 3%-monthly interest rate, so AMRET had to lower its interest rate in that village. 1% may seem very small, but over the year that adds up to 12%. If you’re a client who can only take out 10,000 KHR, that interest rate difference is huge. If microfinance institutions are going to really make an impact in fighting poverty, they need to lower their interest rates by improving their efficiency. Kiva is helping MFIs improve their efficiency by offering 0% loans, versus the 12% loans that other institutions offer MFIs. Paul Luchtenberg, the CEO of AMK, believes Kiva will truly help AMK achieve its social mission. He just hopes that Kiva funds will account for a larger percentage of AMK’s total portfolio (right now it accounts for less than 3%).
Click here to see all the loans from AMK that are currently fundraising on Kiva.
I’m sorry because I haven’t gone out into the field in the past week, so I don’t have any pictures of microfinance in action. I did stop by Angkor Wat this weekend so enjoy these pictures of Ta Prohm Temple:
The Nuts and Bolts
Part of the reason I signed up for the Kiva Fellowship was to see how microfinance actually works on the ground. You can read all the books on microfinance, but that couldn’t make up for never seeing it in action with your own eyes. After getting an understanding of AMK’s operations from their nice air-conditioned central office (where I just finished making them an Excel macro to keep better track of their Kiva loans), I knew I had to see the loan officer in action to really understand the pros and cons of microfinance.
Saphanith, Elena and I stopped by Au Village, the home of two Kiva entrepreneurs, Mrs. Kim Eng and Mrs. Eak Maong. Both entrepreneurs received their loans recently (which is why my journal updates on them are rather meek). We went to their village bank meeting. Here’s a quote from AMK’s website that describes the village bank:
|
AMK’s flagship product is the solidarity group loan product, which offers flexible repayment terms where clients can borrow and repay at any point during the cycle. AMK’s end-of-term repayment product is delivered to members through a solidarity group lending methodology. These village solidarity groups are called Village Banks (VBs) and constitute the group loan delivery mechanism; they are in effect a “Village Association” or “Village-level client group”. The potential clients self-select themselves into solidarity groups of 4 to 6 members and these, in turn, are organized into VBs of 4 to 12 groups (or 20 to 60 clients). Being part of a self-selected solidarity group entails that three to five other villagers trust the loan applicant to let him/her join their solidarity group. All loans are guaranteed by the respective group members and appraised and approved by AMK’s Credit Officer (CO) and the Village Bank President (VBP) before the disbursements take place in the presence of the group members and AMK’s Area/Branch Manager. |
As I mentioned in my last post, each village bank has a president who is elected by the villagers and facilitates the functions of the village bank. When we showed up at Au Village, Ly Chandara, the loan officer was busy collecting payments from many of the villagers. Most of the loans were end of term loans, so the loan officer was collecting mainly interest payments. Nevertheless this took a lot of time. All the clients did not come at the exact time, after they came he had to calculate how much was paid and how much interest they owed. Once they paid up, the loan officer had to do a lot of counting because they mainly gave him small bills 100, 500 and 1000 riels (worth 2.5 cents, 12.5 cents and 25 cents respectively).
Ly Chandara, an AMK loan officer, collecting payments from Au Village Bank members
The village bank meeting was very close to Mrs. Kim Eng’s little shop, so we stopped by for a visit. We saw all the goods that she was able to buy with her loan. She told us about her husband’s death. He had gone to Angkor Wat, and when he came back he became really sick. She thinks that he probably died of food poisoning. She was pregnant at the time of his death, which was ten years ago. Despite all of this she is able to support her family and I wish her the best of luck!
Mrs. Kim Eng and her well stocked store
Smiles!
We then went to Mrs. Eak Maong’s residence. She showed us the new pigs that she bought with a Kiva loan and a gigantic pig that she was getting ready to sell. Her pig breeding business has been doing very well, and she hopes to increase her profits with the pigs she bought using her Kiva loan!
Mrs. Eak Maong and her new pigs
Is this a pig or a small elephant?
Before we left, Saphanith and Elena also got lessons from another Au Village bank member on how to make Num Thnot cake. Num Thnot cake is made out of palm fruit and plam sugar. It is wrapped in banana leaves and then steamed. The first step is to make a box out of a strip of banana leaf and a toothpick. This is what Elena and Saphanith tried to learn.
Elena and Saphanith in the background, while the master Num Thnot maker shows them how it's done.
I don’t want to rush to make any conclusions, good or bad, about microfinance based on my two visits into the field, but hopefully after spending some more time (and learning some Khmer!) I will get a better sense of what microfinance, AMK, and Kiva are accomplishing and what they could improve upon. In the meantime, here’s another animal picture for KivaFriends members.
Oink Oink!
Click here to see all the loans from AMK that are currently fundraising on Kiva.
From the city, into the field: views from a motorbike
To see a complete list of MAXIMA’s clients who live in rural areas such as this one, please click here.
Beautiful Cambodia
I’m regularly taken aback by the beauty that I witness all over Cambodia. However, I am hesitant to write this blog for one reason: I could never fully recount the beauty of the landscape, people, and culture, neither through words nor photographs. Life in Cambodia has been surprisingly humbling and incredibly rewarding, so I hope that I can convey at least a glimmer of my experiences of the country. I’ll do my best to highlight a few of the aspects of Cambodian life and culture which I most appreciate.
Cultural Persona: Pride, cheer, concord – these elements are pervasive in Cambodian culture. Perhaps it’s a result of the past national turmoil, which forced strangers to band together as family for the purpose of survival. Perhaps it’s because the culture is rooted in Buddhist influence, and therefore traditionally devoid of consumerism, deceitfulness or cynicism. Perhaps I shouldn’t try so hard to explain why, but rather appreciate it for what it is.
Three cousins. They stick together, so don't try to mess with them!
Resourcefulness: By necessity, Cambodian people have had to develop an extremely opportunistic and enterprising way of life. It is rare to see a resource go wasted, whether that resource is food, raw material, machine, or manpower.
Driving through Phnom Penh I saw this truck loaded to the max with metal brackets AND people
Tradition: Despite the difficult modern history of Cambodia, including national devastation by the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia has maintained strong cultural traditions. Out in the countryside you can find communities living in the same manner in which they lived before the dawn of motorized transportation, electronics, and other modern comforts. Even in the urban centers, many people still live in close accordance to Buddhist, Muslim or other traditional principles.
A Family business in Kampong Chhnang - the daughters are already expert at pottery
Cuisine: An often overlooked aspect of Cambodia is the delicious Khmer cuisine. Cambodian dishes require natural ingredients and items from the surrounding landscape, and often incorporate animal parts or creatures often overlooked by Western culture. If you can overcome your preconceptions, you can enjoy the cuisine like the Khmer people do.
An array of Khmer dishes for sale at the local market
History: There is no more obvious way to illustrate the spectacular history of Cambodia, than with one of the many magnificent temples at Angkor. The complex of ancient temples at Angkor Wat is the kind of place that you have to visit to fully appreciate, but the grandeur of the temples is clear in any picture, nonetheless.
Ta Prohm Temple, near Angkor Wat
Sometimes life here feels surreal to me, as if I am on the set of a movie (the temple of Ta Prohm near Angkor Wat was, in fact, a set location for the first Tomb Raider movie). Often, It’s not until I skim through my photographs that I realize how uniquely beautiful are the people and their country.
Click here to see all loans from HKL that are currently fundraising on Kiva
Chicks and Dirt Roads
On Friday, Sophanith, Elena and I went to visit the Thea Chhin group, to do a journal on the group leader, Thea Chhin. The journey to Sala Khom Village was quite long. We left AMK‘s central office in Phnom Penh early in the morning and the drive to the branch office in Kampong Chhnang took about an hour. There we were greeted by the branch manager and we switched from our car to a pickup truck that was able to handle the village roads. As soon as our truck started driving on dirt roads, I was reminded of a road trip I took during college with my friends to Havasupai Canyon in Arizona. To get to the canyon we had to take a dirt road that was labeled “primitive road.” There was no such sign in Sala Khom Village.
Primitive road sign from my college road trip
The road to Sala Khom village
After another hour of driving, we arrived at the house of the village bank president where we were informed the village bank was meeting a few hours later. The VB president is elected by the other village bank borrowers. They organize village bank meetings and handle problems that villagers have with repayments or interest rates. While we were waiting I took some pictures of chicks (the animal type!) for KivaFriends members to enjoy.
Chickies!
As the clients started to trickle in, eventually Thea Chhin arrived. She is currently pregnant and is expecting a child in September. Sophanith interviewed her using a questionnaire form Elena developed with him. Hopefully this questionnaire will be used by loan officers as they interview clients for future journals. (At AMK we are still working on integrating Kiva’s needs into their business structure). I took a picture of her and she smiled! Adam, an Australian volunteer for AMK who does a lot of graphic design work for them, has been taking pictures of Cambodians but has had a hard time getting them to smile. When Cambodians pose for pictures they usually have a serious face (like in the business description).
Thea Chinn, another Kiva Success Story!
I wasn’t able to get a picture of her with her business, because she was busy at the village bank meeting. On my next visit to a village I’ll try to get pictures of clients next to their businesses.
This is the journal update I wrote on Thea Chhin which describes how the loan has changed her life:
|
With the loan that she borrowed, Mrs. Thea Chhin was able to buy more vegetables to resell and her husband was able to buy more parts for his motorcycle business. This increased their profits which has improved the living conditions of her family. She has also bought some kitchen equipment. Her three children are doing well; two are working at the same jobs that they had, while the other is still in school. Mrs. Chinn is currently saving some of her money because she is expecting another child in September. The rest of the group is also doing well. Another member has bought fruits from Poy Peth and vegetables from Phnom Penh to sell at the local market. This is an end-of-term loan, so Mrs. Chinn has not made any payments on the principal, but next month she will have to repay the loan in full. She has made every monthly interest payment on time, as has the rest of the group. Just so you know AMK’s default rate is virtually zero. The few loans that are not repaid (less than 0.1%) are mostly those that are written off due to the death of the entrepreneur. |
Click here to see all the loans from AMK that are currently fundraising on Kiva.
Welcome to Phnom Penh!
After a wonderful 25-hour journey from New York, I finally made it to Cambodia! My first order of business was to get my visa at the airport, but that turned out to be a breeze. I filled out a visa application and it was passed along a line of 8 Cambodian officials who were seated in a row behind a counter. After 15 minutes and $25 I had my 30-day business visa (which I have to extend soon). When I left the airport I had to make the very difficult decision between a $9 taxi ride or a $7 tuk-tuk ride. The guy selling tuk-tuk rides made a compelling argument, that he had the cheaper ride, but with all my baggage I decided to splurge on the taxi. The drive into Phnom Penh reminded me a lot of my parent’s home country, Sri Lanka. Just like in Sri Lanka, the roads are shared by wheel-barrows, trucks, and everything in between. The only difference is that Cambodians drive 25 mph slower (which is a ver y good thing!). In Sri Lanka I had to get use to buses accelerating to 65mph, swerving around tractors and tuk-tuks, and then braking hard when we came to a traffic jam.This lead to many accidents on the road, a few which I have taken part in
I was suppose to meet Paujo,an American who works at AMK, outside my apartment. I was taking over Paujo’s place while he’s visiting the states until September. When I got to the street where his apartment is located, I was a bit early so I stopped at a sports bar which is located around the corner. I used the wi-fi at the bar to reach Paujo. After three Tiger beers and a lengthy discussion with the Australian who runs the bar about the sports bar business in Cambodia, Paujo arrived. I grabbed lunch with him, his girlfriend and Elena (the current AMK-Kiva fellow). After my first delicious Cambodian meal, I was ready to pass out. Unfortunately the power was out when I got back to my place, so for a while I was roasting in my bed without a fan. Eventually the power came back on and I fell into a deep sleep. I woke up at 9 PM to fireworks. I quickly ran to the window to make sure taht it in fact was fireworks and not gunfire or bombs (with elections around the corner you never know what can happen!) I later learned that the National Museum, which I live next to, has fireworks on occasion. I managed to go back to sleep, only to wake up again at 2 in the morning, damn jet-lag. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn’t, so I watched a movie on my laptop to kill time. When the sun rose I got dressed and headed out to AMK.
I arrived at the office before most of the staff had come in, but eventually I met Sophanith, the AMK Kiva coordinator. He introduced me to the entire staff, which was about 30 people, in 5 minutes, so I forgot most of their names really quickly. As a former teacher, I learned that it helps to learn names if you see them on paper, so I got to learn the senior staff’s name by looking at AMK’s financial report which has their names listed. Sophanith has been writing most of the business descriptions for AMK, and according to Elena (the other AMK fellow) his English has improved a lot since she’s been there. He is a hilarious guy, and in the future I should devote an entire post to him so taht you guys can get to know him. The staff at AMK is really, really friendly. AMK is new to Kiva, but they have a well established business. I read in their annual report that they became a profitable business in less than a year. What also makes them stand out from other MFIs is their dedication to social performance. The board of directors has created two standing committees, the audit committee and the social performance committee. These two committees allow AMK to balance their social mission with their financial self-sufficiency. Elena and I will talk more about their social performance and research work in our posts to come!
One thing which I’m going to have to get use to (not that I should be complaining) is our two-hour lunches. The workday here is from 7:30am-5pm with lunch from 12pm-2pm. During my first lunch, I ate my meal quickly like I usually do and I was walking quickly back to work. Elena had to slow me down, but we still got back an hour early. However, today I made good use of my lunch break. At 12pm, I noticed the All-Star game was in the 12th inning, so I hopped on a moto and went to that sports bar near my house. I managed to catch the the last 3 innings of the game. It was great! (Once I get to learn some Khmer, I promise I will be having more Cambodian experiences!)
This is a becoming a long post, but before I sign off a quick note about AMK’s delinquency rate: Kiva recently took off AMK’s delinquency rate on their profile page. The reason behind this was many of the loans that AMK had posted on Kiva were end of term loans, which means that they get repaid at the end of the loan instead of monthly payments. Kiva didn’t have a way to designate end of term loans, so when monthly payments were not coming in AMK’s delinquency rate went up. Their actual default rate is less than 0.1%. AMK has now switched all of the loans they post on Kiva so that they can avoid this problem in the future. You guys should check out some of the loans that are posted by AMK on Kiva.
Also, I haven’t taken my camera out yet, but I will be going out onto the field on Friday! So hopefully I’ll get some pictures up for you guys to enjoy!
Musings: the halfway point
I was surprised to discover earlier this week that I have approached the halfway point of my Kiva fellowship. Upon this realization I was frustrated because of how little I still know about microfinance, development, and rural Cambodia and how little time I have left in my fellowship to advance my understandings on these topics.
That said, I am incredibly indebted to both Kiva and MAXIMA Mikroheranhvatho Co. Ltd to the exposure they have provided me to these issues. Short of complete rural immersion, I cannot imagine a more authentic and candid glimpse of the uphill battle microfinance institutions (and development organizations in general) face in “working together for the development of rural households” (to borrow shamelessly from my beloved host MFI’s new slogan).
I lack the expertise to title the following as truths, and the experience to even categorize them as opinions, but below are a few of the musings which cross my mind on a daily basis as I wander in and out of homes in rural Cambodia on the back of a motorbike:
Microcredit can actually reach people who otherwise would have no other access to credit. While many of the individuals I have interviewed have said they would have borrowed from a private bank and been able to swallow the higher interest rates those banks demand, a great many have explained that for them it simply isn’t an option. They do not have the transportation means to drive thirty kilometers to an office in Phnom Penh, nor can they afford the opportunity costs of taking at least one day off of work to apply for financial services in that office. They have no collateral and no financial expertise to navigate through Khmer banking laws or are gun-shy from predatory moneylenders. Microcredit- individual attention and services aimed to meet the entrepreneur where she is- truly is their only option.
Repeated lending to the same entrepreneur is not necessarily “dependency.” One of the criticisms of microfinance I have heard is that individuals who take out repeated microloans have entered into a cycle of dependency from which they cannot escape. I struggle to believe this. Many entrepreneurs borrow to expand a business which needs to grow based on demand or market opportunities. To withhold a microloan out of fear of “dependency” does not allow the business to scale to its potential. Other businessmen and women take out multiple loans in progressing size; their business is growing and thus needs more and more capital to continue its expansion. When they outgrow the services provided by the microfinance institution they then possess the capital and collateral to apply for financial services from a more formal bank. Formal, incorporated companies in both the west and the developing world undergo repeated lending- this process is crucial for the growth of any viable business.
Loans can have a tangible impact on the standard of living of an individual. I cannot count the number of times clients have told me that their income is significantly larger now than before they received their loan. An increase of $1 or $2 USD a day can often mean the difference between children attending school and children having to drop out and help their mother weave or assist their father in growing vegetables. It can mean the difference between a family sleeping every night in the rain and having a strong, durable roof over their heads, or a toilet instead of having to walk into the woods and dig a hole in the ground multiple times a day. These are incredible differences which to one family may be extremely real and very much appreciated.
Entrepreneurs in rural, developing economies are usually incredibly hard working. I say “usually” because just like everywhere else in the world people are unique- some industrious, creative, and dedicated, others lazy and indolent. That said, I have yet to meet a client whose livelihood, and whose children’s survival and future prospects, did not hinge on the number of hours she worked, the number of tomatoes she harvested, or the pieces of silk she wove that week. Certainly people throughout the world work incredibly hard to better the lives of themselves and their families, but the correlation between hard work and standard of living in the rural, informal economy is extremely direct. There are no government safety nets, no worker’s compensation, no paid sick days, no minimum wage, no food stamps, no overtime hours. Taking a day off for rest, finishing work early for a day is an option but for someone earning $3 or $4 USD a day it seriously impacts the amount of disposable income the family depends on for crucial expenses- food, water, and medicine.
Microfinance services are opportunities to better the lives of individuals with the utmost dignity. I believed this long before I stepped foot into “the field” but I firmly subscribe to this opinion now. In 95% weather along twenty-five kilometers of dust and sweat the loan officers of MAXIMA wear collared, button-up shirts and dress pants, they know the names and life stories of each of their clients (many of them were their neighbors as they often come from the provinces they now serve), and are personally invested in their business success. The interaction is professional, there are documents to be signed, records to be collected, and precise amounts of money at precise times to be owed. Both lender and borrower know this and want to take it seriously. Clients prepare the exact amount days before and anxiously await the arrival of their loan officer each month. “It is difficult to pay on time,” one woman told me. “But it is so important to me to be a good client.” Beliefs such as these are inherent in all people, regardless of cultural or economic backgrounds, and microfinance provides services which align with and honor these values.
To see all currently fundraising loans from MAXIMA on Kiva.org, please click here.
America! Oh, Yeah!
I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t experience it myself, but Cambodia is a great place to celebrate American Independence Day. If you don’t believe me, I have the pictures to prove it!
This weekend was jam packed with, among other things, a fireworks show on the evening of the 4th and a large celebration at the US embassy in the capital city of Phnom Penh. The event included the typical American fare of burgers, hot dogs, donuts and beer, and enough American activities to make me feel like I was at home again.
As soon as I arrived, I began stuffing my face with good old fashioned American food – a hamburger, cake, some soda – and then I found out about the hot dog eating contest! The Kiva fellows made a (strong?) showing, with two [losing] contestants. I’ve always figured that my never-ending appetite would come in handy in an eating contest, but until now I never knew that everything tastes gross in the middle of an eating contest. I guess it didn’t exactly help that I was full of food going in, and couldn’t stop cracking up during the competition.
An action shot of the competition: The contestant on the right was the winner, as you might guess from his concentration... As for the two Kiva Fellow contestants, concentration isn't our forte
After the hot dog eating contest we watched a hilarious clown show that was put on by Sopana Phom, a traditional Cambodian theater group. It was complete with a healthy dose of slapstick humor, juggling, and fart jokes – sounds American enough for me. Yes, I think I actually enjoyed this one more than the kids. No, I’m not ashamed of myself.
Clown Show by Sovanna Phum
The night came to a close as everyone rocked out to a military band. They played an impressive medley of classic and modern rock and had the whole audience dancing in no time. Everyone’s favorite member of the band was the trombone player, whose performance style could only be described as “agro.”
The Armed Forces meets Rock and Roll
All in all, it was a great weekend. I have always taken for granted my Country and all of the wonderful things that it has to offer. And although I do love living and working in Cambodia, now that I am experiencing life in a developing country, thousands of miles away from the place I call home, I finally realize how fortunate I am to be an American.
'Cause nothing says "I love my Country" like Rock Hands and flag cake
