by James Han, KF9 Cambodia (AMK)

We typically measure the impact of microfinance through financial measures.  What interest rates are the microfinance institutions (MFIs) charging? Has the client’s business experienced increased profits?  Has a population increased its household income?  These are all valid questions and are at the center of measuring the effectiveness of microfinance.

But, I was recently inspired by the broader social impact that microfinance can have.  While the “social bottom line” may not be as quantifiable as interest rates or household income, MFIs such as AMK are proving that an MFI with a strong social mission can have a truly profound impact on a local community.

AMK is Cambodia’s fifth largest MFI and more importantly, one of Cambodia’s most socially focused MFIs.  Back in June 2009 with the help of Katie Davis (KF7), AMK started SIGU (Special Interest Group Unit), an internal team that focuses on assisting “vulnerable groups” that are currently under-served by microfinance services.  These vulnerable groups include women who are victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and other gender-based traumas, as well as people living with HIV/AIDS, street children, and the disabled.  Last Thursday was a special day for Katie and the SIGU team as they disbursed their first loan to a group of young women who will use the loan to start a sewing cooperative in Phnom Penh.

I had a chance to interview Katie to further dig into how AMK is using microfinance to combat issues such as human trafficking.

What is your position and how did you end up at AMK?

I am the Special Interest Group Unit Coordinator and ended up at AMK because of my Kiva Fellowship, which I completed earlier this year.  After my 4-month placement, I wanted to get a deeper understanding of microfinance and also contribute something unique to the industry.  AMK had already started the research for SIGU and the opportunity naturally came up for me to lead this initiative so I decided to stay with AMK.

Last Thursday was a big day for you, can you tell us more about it?

We recently partnered with a small sewing co-operative comprised of 5 young women who previously worked under exploitative conditions.  These young women had all come to Phnom Penh from rural provinces to escape vulnerable family situations which put them at risk of being trafficked. The women attended a vocational training program that taught them how to sew. The tailor who had employed these girls was very indebted, so she stopped paying the girls’ salaries.  Because the tailor had housed the girls, they had nowhere to go and consequently worked in this exploitative situation for over a year.  They finally broke free when a sympathetic client realized the injustice of the situation and facilitated a way out. Last Thursday, AMK/SIGU extended each woman a loan of $145 to buy a sewing machine.  The 5 girls will work for the co-operative and receive a salary, but if they ever want to leave to start their own businesses, they have their own sewing machine to do so.

The loan disbursement was a special day for me.  I had been to inspiring loan disbursements before through my Kiva Fellowship but to see the smiles on the girls’ faces, knowing the adversity they had been through was an amazing thing.  My experience at AMK has come full circle in that SIGU has been able to designate this first loan as a Kiva loan because these 5 brave ladies want their story told.

The First SIGU Borrowers

Why are these “vulnerable group” underserved in the microfinance community?

There are different vulnerable groups, for example people with HIV/AIDS, people who have become handicapped due to land mines, and human trafficking victims; and in Cambodia they all seem to fall through the cracks of microfinance.  Due to some element of past trauma, they are perceived as a “too risky” poor.  Moreover, NGOs usually become the default supporters for these individuals, and if dependency results, individuals are less exposed to microfinance as a viable economic option for self sufficiency.

What else is SIGU working on?

A big part of my job is to be an ambassador for AMK and microfinance to the NGO community.  The NGOs that assist vulnerable groups are great at implementing after-care programs and supporting victims emotionally but we also recognize they need to be supported financially.  I don’t believe NGOs in Cambodia should spread themselves thin by trying to create a credit program from scratch, just as we as a bank should not try to develop after-care programs in a field where we have no expertise. Collaboration which draws on the core strengths of both MFIs and NGO, in the form of a partnership, can help ensure that clients are supported both emotionally and economically.

We currently have formal partnerships with two well known after-care organizations in Phnom Penh, Hagar International and Daughters of Cambodia.  Hagar operates as a residential shelter and community outreach program.  SIGU is designing a microfinance-specific financial education curriculum which will be incorporated into Hagar’s existing vocational programs as a credit pilot gets underway.  Daughters of Cambodia operates as a day center in an area of brothels, offering programs and activities designed to empower victims of sexual exploitation through a range of social, psychological, and alternative employment opportunities.  Clients receive a salary once they acquire new skills and begin contributing to the many social businesses run out of the Daughters center.  Some of the women who have worked at the center for a prolonged period have expressed a desire to start their own business.  So, we have recently conducted trainings for the women interested in obtaining a loan, and we expect to make at least one loan to a Daughter’s client this month.

SIGU will continue reach out to additional NGO’s in the anti-trafficking arena and open the door for further partnerships.  Also, the financial education is something unique to the market in Cambodia and is crucial to the mission of SIGU.  We want the financial literacy training to precede credit discussions.SIGU loans are similar to AMK’s regular loans, but they do differ in collateral requirements. AMK does not expect to profit on SIGU loans, but  we do believe in the capacity of these people to repay, and we believe that these “socially focused” loans can be self sustaining.

Katie

After thanking Katie for her time and for her inspiring work, I began to see a theme in Katie’s work.

She is facilitating cooperation and collaboration between the NGO community and the MF community to alleviate all facets of poverty.  Poverty is being in a state of lack rather than abundance and this can be the case not just from an economical sense, but from an emotional one as well.  With reportedly over 1,000 NGOs in Cambodia addressing needs in education, healthcare, and various human rights issues, there are significant and noble efforts being done to restore “the emotional wealth” of the marginalized.  At the same time, Cambodia’s 18 licensed MFIs have reached close to a million borrowers to provide economic opportunity.  Although both movements have made significant strides individually, only with collaboration will all facets of poverty be alleviated in Cambodia.  And thanks to the efforts of people like Katie, that is becoming a reality.

James Han is a Kiva Fellow working for Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) in Cambodia.

AMK’s mission is to help large numbers of the poor in Cambodia improve their livelihood options through the sustainable delivery of appropriate and viable microfinance services.  To view their current fundraising loan, click here.

by James Han, KF9 Cambodia (AMK)

AMK's new home office in Phnom Penh

Sus-Dai (Hello)! My name is James Han and I recently took a 3-month leave of absence from my management consulting career to work in Cambodia with Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK), currently Kiva’s largest field partner.  I’m thrilled to see first-hand how AMK operates as they are one of the most well-respected and efficiently operated MFIs in SE Asia (more to come on that topic in future blogs).  I also have some big shoes to fill as past Kiva Fellows from AMK have either been hired full-time by AMK to start new initiatives (again, more to come later) or have now become famous in the Kiva world (e.g. Kieran Ball who created the Kiva video, “A Fistful of Dollars – The Story of a Kiva.org Loan”).  No pressure!

My work plan over the next 10 weeks will be slightly different from the typical Kiva Fellow work plan  I have been out in the Kompong Chhnang province of Cambodia for the past week, meeting with the local entrepreneurs and conducting Kiva Journal updates.  I’ll continue to do this for the next 2-3 weeks and then spend the majority of my remaining time working on a couple special projects for AMK.  Before my placement began, I was sent a list of two dozen projects I could potentially work on, ranging from researching the use of mobile phones in microfinance to new product development for special interest groups, such as victims of human trafficking.  While it was hard to choose, I decided to stay in my consulting sweet-spot and will help AMK revise their incentive and salary compensation programs and will also devise a measurement system so AMK can compare performance between their various branches.  I feel like a kid in a candy shop and will certainly do as much as I can with my limited time here!  Be on the lookout for updates!

I’ll leave you with my first observations about life in Cambodia:

One, everybody in Cambodia smiles a lot!  It’s one of my favorite things about living here so far.  When I was out in the field, a borrower who was part of a group loan found out she had to cover the loan of another group member who ran away from the village.  She was livid and started yelling at me and the loan officer.  It was the tensest moment I had yet, but when I gave her this guilty, helpless smirk, she gave me the warmest, biggest smile as she rode away in her bicycle.  Cambodians never fail to show their pearly whites!

Two, AMK loan officers may have the most difficult job at the MFI.  Being in consulting, I’m used to long days, but back at home, I get to sit in an air conditioned office and order nice take-out dinners.  While I was out in the field this past week, I visited about 5-10 entrepreneurs from 8am to 1pm and couldn’t find the energy to get back out in the field in my moto.  I was exhausted, hungry, and had a horrific farmers tan.  The loan officers on the other hand went for another 4 hours during the hottest time of the day.  And they never complained.  They’re rockstars and they make this whole system work.

Three, Phnom Penh is a city run by NGOs.  I’m impressed by the number of foreigners that make a living helping Cambodians.  The good side of the story is that there is a lot of international pressure on the government to address social issues such as poverty, education, and human trafficking.  However, I couldn’t help but feel like the NGOs are substituting the government in providing social services.  If that’s true, the work that the NGOs do, while commendable, will never be sustainable. I have heard that many NGOs are starting to leave Cambodia because of the lack of funding during the recession.  We’ll see the impact of that reduction soon.  Also, what’s going to happen to the tourist/foreigner dependent economy here when NGOs leave in bunches?

Four, the kids here are extremely smart and talented.  A little girl (10-years old) who goes by “Ka” sells books on the street outside my apartment and is one of the best salespersons I have ever met!    I told her I would buy some postcards from her if I ran into her 5 times.  She proceeded to giggle and hide behind a tree while poking her head out repeatedly, “2. 3. 4. 5! Okay, you buy now!”  Another girl (13-years old) engaged me in a conversation about how it doesn’t make sense public officials have so much money when the rest of Cambodia is poor.  I hope Cambodia finds a way to positively tap into the potential of their youth. (50% of Cambodia’s 14 million people are under 25, with a median age of 20.6)

Five, my favorite part of the day is riding through the Phnom Penh rush hour on the back of a moto.  You get to hear and see the country in fast forward.

Some pictures and snapshots:

Morning view of the Mekong River from my apartment

Kirirom National Park

Repayment meeting in the Phsar Village of the Kompong Chhnang Province

Loan officers from the Kompong Chhnang Branch getting ready for a full day of repayment visits

Picture-perfect drive through the Kor Village

I am excited to be here and will be sharing thoughts, observations, and experiences over the next 10 weeks!

James Han is a Kiva Fellow working for Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) in Cambodia.

AMK’s mission is to help large numbers of the poor in Cambodia improve their livelihood options through the sustainable delivery of appropriate and viable microfinance services.  To view their current fundraising loans on Kiva, click here.

This Wednesday marked a watershed moment for Kiva.org: borrowers from the U.S. made a well-publicized debut on the person-to-person microlending website. It left no doubt that microcredit, seen by many as the province of the poor, had arrived to serve Americans in need.

The floodgates are open, and they sluice both ways.

Kiva’s launch of lending in the U.S. has impassioned many, including a group of people in Cambodia near and dear to me — the staff of Maxima Mikroheranvatho, a Kiva partner microfinance institution where I was a Kiva Fellow from October 2008 to February 2009.

As Kiva ambassador-in-the-trenches at Maxima, one of the things I’d tried to impress upon them was the satisfaction I get out of being a Kiva lender. So when my posting at Maxima ended earlier this year, I’d settled on the perfect gift to help them understand this: a Kiva gift certificate.

Over our farewell dinner in Phnom Penh, I pulled out a printout of the Kiva gift certificate page and presented it to the senior managers at Maxima. As they’re in the business of microlending, minor disbelief ensued. Kiva!? Who would they lend to? When I told them that Kiva was considering launching in the U.S., excitement erupted.

This week, the people at Maxima finally got to redeem their gift certificate. They chose to lend to Amato, a woman with a child care business who lives in Fremont, California that is an Opportunity Fund client. Bunhak An, Maxima’s deputy executive director, wrote me to explain how he felt about Maxima becoming a Kiva lender. A gently edited version of Bunhak’s email follows:

Dear John,

I would like to inform you that we like to lend on Kiva, as we know that Kiva is best and first website to initiate idea using technology to help the poor around the world (especially our Cambodians) to bring lender and borrowers together.

We think this is our opportunity to help people around world. Kiva’s mission is a journey, not the destination. Kiva is now helping American people, just as it as helped our Cambodian poor a lot via Maxima and other MFIs. Kiva was there before the economic crisis and still continues to help.

When we click lend, we feel proud to help people really need money for business. We chose to lend Amato, because she is a widowed mother of two, has always loved children and believes her mission in life is to help them. Women and children are the first priority in my mind, as well as clients that Maxima targets. We will continue to lend more as we have committed within our management and staff to have the art of contribution.

We pay thanks to Kiva and its founders, and encourage Kiva to continue its great mission to build a world without poverty.

Regards,

Bunhak An

It was a proud moment for all of us.

To me, Kiva’s decision to help facilitate lending to borrowers in the U.S. doesn’t mean that microfinance funding will dry up for people in places with the most acute need, or that Kiva will markedly shift its focus from the developing world. It’s just recognition of the fact that there’s need everywhere, even in the nation that boasts the largest economy on earth.

I’ll be keeping an eye on Maxima’s Kiva lender page to find out who they might loan to next.

Maxima staff and Kiva Fellow at the Phnom Penh head office, January 2009. Bunhak An is in the rear row, third from right.

John Briggs is a Kiva Fellow serving with the Kenya Agency for Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET) (KF8). Before being posted in Kenya, he worked with Kiva field partners Ahon Sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) (KF7) in the Philippines and Maxima Mikroheranvatho (KF6) in Cambodia.

By design, Microfinance is not sustainable without the dedication of hundreds of thousands of Credit Officers (CO’s) working for Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s) around the world. The Kiva online person-to -person (P2P) lending platform only works because CO’s employed by the 95 Kiva Field Partners in 44 countries are out visiting clients, taking pictures and writing business profiles for our website in addition to their regular loan disbursements and repayment collections. My job as a Kiva Fellow at AMK in Cambodia also relies heavily on the CO’s who bring me out to the field so that I can interview Kiva entrepreneurs and create journal updates that get sent to Kiva Lenders around the world.

AMK Credit Officer (CO) ready to ride

A few things to point out:

• Being a CO is extremely hard work. AMK CO’s often drive their motorcycles 100+km a day through extremely hot weather to meet with clients. It is currently monsoon season in Cambodia but CO’s work rain or shine.
• CO’s can be responsible for managing 300+ clients (in some cases as many as 700 in areas that are dominated by village bank group loans) and these clients must be visited on a monthly basis in order for repayments to be collected
• Co’s are highly visible and typically well respected figures in the villages they represent. When I ask entrepreneurs what type of work they hope their children will pursue when they are older, I frequently get an answer along the lines of “I want them to work at a bank like AMK.”
• Microfinance is a cash business and the CO’s are responsible for transporting and accounting for large quantities of currency. Unfortunately this carries with it the risk of being robbed and conversely a potential temptation to commit fraud.

CO's in training observing a loan disbursement

So how does one become a CO? While I was out in the field visiting Kiva entrepreneurs in Kandal Province a few weeks ago I came across a group of AMK CO’s in training as they were observing loan disbursements and repayments. I was able to talk to the training instructor and ask a few of the trainees about the process.

• In order to apply for CO openings at any AMK branch, the candidate must first sit for an exam which tests quantitative abilities such as interest calculation and agriculture specific conversion formulas (most frequently to hectors).
• If the candidate passes the exam, they apply for a position in a training class. CO training lasts 10 days and while the majority of it takes place in a classroom, trainees spend 2 days doing field observations.
• Upon graduating from the course, the new CO’s will shadow a seasoned CO out in the field for several weeks.  A new CO must then build up their own portfolio of clients by visiting villages that AMK does not currently have a presence in.
• The new CO first builds a relationship with the village or commune leader who will give the CO permission to work in their village and help spread the word to the community.
• The CO will then host an information session to explain how to get a loan and what the requirements are, and then they will return to village a week or two later to collect loan applications from the villagers.
• Yet another village visit must take place for the actual loan disbursement to be made. It is sink or swim for many new CO’s in their first few months on the job.
• Some CO’s are fortunate to be able to take over the existing portfolio of clients from a CO who quits or is promoted to Area Manager.

Despite knowing all of this, I gained an even greater appreciation for CO’s last week while attempting to visit Kiva entrepreneurs in Kandal Province. AMK Kiva Coordinator extraordinaire, Sopanith Hay, and I decided that it might be more efficient to try and find some entrepreneurs on our own rather than tagging along with an AMK CO who was collecting repayments from non-Kiva AMK borrowers in the same area. Not the brightest idea we have ever had…

And that is 5 minutes of footage boiled down from our 3 hour mis-adventure.  A slightly humorous (I hope) reminder that the implementation of the “developed world’s” idea of microfinance really rests in the hands of the citizens of the villages, provinces, towns, and cities where microcredit is extended. I am just giving credit where credit is due (pun intended). Cheers to the CO’s!

Katie Davis has been working as a Kiva Fellow (KF7) at AMK in Cambodia for the past 4 months. Katie is wrapping up her role as a fellow and is staying on with AMK on an interim basis to help start an exciting new unit within the bank focused on serving vulnerable groups.

Over the last three months, four Kiva Fellows (Katie, Julie, Jeff and Drew) have been working and living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We are so lucky to have spent this time together in such a wonderful place. Alas, our time has come to an end but we have put together a video to share both our time at our individual MFI’s and our time together outside of work.

It is unusual for multiple Kiva Fellows to be located in the same city, but Phnom Penh is a unique place in the development world and the Cambodian Microfinance landscape is highly active – creating a phenomenal opportunity for us to share our experiences and learn from each other as we entrenched ourselves at our respective MFI field partners: HKL, AMK, Credit and MAXIMA.

While this is the end of our time together each of us will be moving on to new and exciting things. Julie will be attending law school in the fall (law school TBD ), Jeff will be begin studying for his MBA at MIT, Katie will be working with Microfinance in Cambodia in a new capacity, and Drew will be going to Kiva’s partner ASKI, in the Philippines.

We would like to thank all of our great coworkers, especially our Kiva Coordinators for all of their hard work and help. Also, a special thanks to all of the Kiva Lenders who make Kiva and all of our great experiences as fellows possible. We feel privileged to have been able to serve as Kiva Fellows in Cambodia and would love to see interest in Kiva and the Kiva Fellows program continue to grow. If you have enjoyed reading Kiva Stories from the Field please help spread the word and share the link with a friend!

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CREDIT Microfinance Institution, Kiva’s oldest partner in Southeast Asia, and 7th oldest in its portfolio of partners celebrated its third year on Kiva May 3rd, 2009. As one of Kiva’s oldest partners, they have received over $3.1m in loans, making it the most invested MFI in Kiva’s portfolio of MFIs. Through the generosity of over 48,500 Kiva lenders, over 4150 of CREDIT’s clients have received loans ranging from $100 to $1200 helping them run businesses, fix homes, educate their children, supply daily needs, and ultimately enabling them to build a higher standard of living for themselves and their families.

To celebrate CREDIT’s third year, I have put together a retrospective video of my time with them on their work in the office and in the field.

Thank you to the tens of thousands of Kiva lenders for investing in CREDIT MFI’s clients and supporting CREDIT MFI over the years. The journey has just begun…

To invest in current Kiva CREDIT-MFI borrowers in need of loans, please click this link

Kiva Fundraising loans at Credit MFI

To learn more about CREDIT MFI please visit their website CREDIT Microfinance Institution

*Teresa Dunbar was a Kiva Fellow with CREDIT MFI from August 2008 – February 2009. During her time there she became increasingly interested in the daily struggles of Cambodia’s peoples. Her interests include; land rights, livelihood and environmental protection, government and business transparency, and the rule of law, and how each affects the viability of microfinance.

I think that most Kiva Fellows will agree that anytime we meet with Kiva Entrepreneurs we are confronted with a gauntlet of emotions from happy to sad, from inspired to depressed, from energized to drained. While for the most part, for me anyway, the experience tilts towards the positive side of things you never know who or what you are going to run into when you hop on the back of your credit officer’s moto.

I spent the beginning part of this week meeting with twenty-five Kiva Entrepreneurs and felt practically every emotion I can think of. While my first idea for this post was to tell you how I felt meeting these people I decided that each one of these experiences could mean something totally different to every person. I am going to try to introduce you to three of the individuals I visited with via a brief intro and a short video so you can meet them with as little filtering and subjectivity as possible.

In almost every video I ask them if they have any hopes or dreams for the their family’s future. Most of the answers are fairly ordinary; increase my sales, change business, fix or build a new home, but even these answers represent a desire to overcome significant obstacles to better the lives of them and their children.

Meet Ny Sokythea:
Ny Sokuthea and her husband expanded their fish selling business with their Kiva loan. With the money from the loan Ny Sokuthea went to several local fishermen and gave them money up front in return for the promise that they would sell exclusively to her and at a price they determined in advance. This brilliant piece of negotiating has helped her stabilize her costs while ensuring that she has a product to take to the market everyday. After only a few weeks she was able to earn about $5 in extra profit per day. They also farm a small plot of rice for about 6 months out of the year for extra income. Ny and her husband have three children, all daughters, ages five, thirteen and fifteen. They all attend school and Ny says that they all study both Khmer and English.

In the video you can see she is a very funny and playful person, when I asked her about how she would want to grow her business she told me that she wanted a car so she could fill it with fish to take to the market, a joke, maybe. When I asked her about her dreams about her future she told me with a mischievous smile on her face that she wanted to be a “Ms. Excellency” or a high official in the national government.

Meet Lia Lun:
When I went to visit Lia Lun I was greeted with extreme hospitality despite very difficult circumstances for her. The night before I came to her house her 40-year-old next-door neighbor had passed away in his sleep and she was busy making preparations for his funeral. When I offered to come back another day she flatly refused and pulled up a chair and table for us to sit at. While what I was there for was of much less importance than what was going on around me I felt it would be rude to not accept her hospitality and so we sat and spoke for a few minutes.

Both Lia and her husband have been creating decorative Khmer wood pieces since the early eighties (see video for example of their work). They have three children, two sons and one daughter. They have two grandchildren as well with three more on the way as their daughter in law is expecting triplets next month.

As I sat and spoke with Lia, her husband and other men from the neighborhood were building the coffin only a few yards away while her neighbor lay on a table under a tree just beyond them. The banging you hear in the background of the video was all of this going on.

Meet Rom Chhoeuy:
Rom Chhoeuy has been selling fish and traditional fish paste for about seven years. Her normal routine is to go to the local fishermen every morning and buy some of their catch and take her purchase to the local market to resell. She makes a good living of $7 a day and is very happy with how things are going.

Her husband has been repairing machinery for two years and makes about $5 a day. Before he had his current job he was a moto taxi driver for six years. They have two children, one son aged 6 and one daughter aged 8. Both of her children attend the local school.

The entire time I was completing the interview her kids were waving and smiling at me. See the video of my final question to see what I mean.

Meeting each one of these women and hearing about how they were using their loans was an amazing experience and I hope I was able to share that in some small way.

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Drew Loizeaux is currently serving as a Kiva Fellow with Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Rice plants nearly ready for harvest

Sophisticated income statements and balance sheets are the standard tools used by global corporates to demonstrate their year-over-year growth and net change in assets and liabilities. I saw my fair share of SEC sanctioned 10K annual and 10Q quarterly financial reports while working in corporate banking in New York City, but from where I stand now as a Kiva Fellow in my third month in the field, these accounting instruments are of no use to Kiva entrepreneurs in rural Cambodia, many of whom cannot read or write.

When I interview Kiva borrowers in the agriculture sector (which fits the description for the majority of AMK’s clients in Cambodia), I try to get a sense of how their crops are doing and if they are satisfied with the most recent harvest. Some borrowers cultivate rice solely for personal consumption while others grow to sell. When entrepreneurs have multiple businesses (which many of them do), the decision to sell or keep the rice they grow is often a function of the success of their harvest. If a farmer lives near a good irrigation source they can harvest rice twice a year during both the rainy and the dry season, but otherwise rainy season is the only option since rice cultivation is heavily dependent on the weather.

My enthusiastic instructor

Most farmers I speak with can quickly tell me the market price they can get for one kilogram of rice: typically about 800 Riel (20 cents USD). When I ask borrowers how many kilograms of rice they recently harvested, however, I get a variety of answers, and seldom are they numerical. The general response trend is that year over year growth is described in terms of “better or worse.” While visiting Svay Village in the Kandal Province of Cambodia yesterday I encountered the most enduring and perhaps practical explanation yet of how one entrepreneur measures her yearly “profit.” Check out this video to see my rice accounting 101 tutorial:

Can a line drawn semi annually inside a giant bin marking the height of a rice harvest really provide accurate data? For a hardworking family living in the in Svay Village of rural Cambodia the answer is yes, accurate enough. If this seasons harvest exceeds last seasons harvest and last seasons harvest was enough to feed the family, then some of the excess yield can be sold to bring in additional income for the family.

It was a humbling but wonderful afternoon

Katie Davis is currently serving as a Kiva Fellow (KF7) at Angkor Microfinance Kampuchea (AMK) based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

For many NGO’s and even corporate offices, “the field” refers to branch offices and client meetings held outside of company headquarters. “Going into the field” is a very commonly used phrase on the Kiva Fellows blog. This broad definition applies to the work of Kiva Fellows as well, but we get to say we are “off to the field” with extra pizazz because, well – we literally go to the fields.

Step into my office...

(You should not be expecting anything profound from this blog post…after all, cuddling piglets is in the title!)

Field Equipment - Don't leave home without:

1. Small Backpack
2. Flip Video Camera
3. Motorcycle Helmet
4. Digital Camera
5. Notebook & Pen
6. Toilet Paper in Ziploc Bag (Might save your life!)
7. Purell
8. Water
9. Sunscreen
10. GPS device

Chaco tan/dirt lines - the Kiva Fellow tattoo

In Cambodia, most houses in “the field” are built on stilts to create a shady space underneath which the families go about their daily activities, often times sharing the space with their cows, pigs, and chickens who are also trying to escape the 100+ heat. Most of my interviews with Kiva entrepreneurs take place on a wooden bench in the “shade.”

Hangin' under the house

It is easy to romanticize “the field.” I’m not going to lie; I feel pretty bad-ass flying through the Cambodian countryside on a motorcycle with my Camelbak full of equipment. I believe strongly in the work that I am doing with Kiva and AMK, and the field is where all the action takes place. After spending 5 straight days in the field this week, however, I can assure there is a flip side to the romanticized version. The heat is excruciating, I sweat more than I thought is humanly possible, I get filthy dirty, riding on the back of a moto for more than 20 minutes on bumpy dirt roads leaves me more saddle sore than any horse could, and the local food, despite being delicious, can send me running for a toilet, if I am lucky enough to find one. “The Field” does not operate on a clock, and microfinance is a very social construct in Cambodia, particularly when it comes to village bank loans. This is my polite way of saying that there is a lot of “down time” in “the field,” so I am learning to check my notions of efficiency at the door each day. “The Field” is an amazing experience and well worth the uncomfortable side effects. Occasionally I see some amusing things and just happen to have a video camera in my hand. Here are a few random out-take clips from the field. Check out the spooning piglets – gotta love it!

HKL, the MFI that I am at for my first Kiva Fellowship, has Kiva loans all over Cambodia, which means if I want to visit with a decent number of Kiva borrowers I have to do a fair amount to traveling. Last week I did my first of several week long excursions to a branch office, this time in Siem Reap. Some of you may have heard of this town before as it is the home to Angkor Wat:

Angkor Wat!!!

Needless to say I did not complain when it was decided that this would be going there and decided to make it into a 7 day adventure. Of those 7 I spent 4 days on the back of motos and meeting with as many Kiva borrowers as possible. The last 3 were spent exploring the surrounding temples with fellow Fellow Katie Davis, who came out for the weekend. While my work as a Kiva Fellow and my time as a tourist were about as different experiences as you can get there was one thing that I was struck by every single day: there is a history and depth to Khmer society and culture that I am afraid I will never truly be able to grasp in the time I have here.

The Khmer Empire dates back to 802 AD and the culture to this day is steeped in respect and tradition. There were signs of this at every visit, around every bend in the red dirt roads and in each temple I visited. At one point we had been on a series of dirt roads and paths for about an hour going to meet a borrower when we turned a corner and I was face to face with an enormous temple, under construction and covered in hand made scaffolding. While I have no idea how old it was one thing I did know was it was built without any big modern equipment, they simply could not have gotten it there. When I asked the credit officer I was with about how this construction was paid for he said that there was probably some money being sent in but many of the local boys and young men were most likely completing most of the work. Surrounded by a village of mostly subsistence rice farmers this temple is a cornerstone of the culture and deemed important enough to renovate.

After one of my days with borrowers and I met a PHD student who lives in the area, she speaks fluent Khmer and has been interviewing local Khmers for about a year. In other words, this was someone who had many experiences to share that could be helpful for me. When I told her that sometimes I became confused when I asked about how business was doing. Many times I would get the answer, good but there are problems, problems that are sometimes never were fully explained to me. She said that in many cases this could mean that the person believes that someone has put a curse on them or there are other supernatural powers at work. It was something that she said was not shared with her until she became fluent in the language and they felt comfortable speaking with her about it. While I can not infer that because I was not able to obtain an answer from a borrower that this was why it just drove home the fact that I am just skimming the surface of the place I am living in. This was both interesting and sad to know. While it did give me a new and useful perspective I had the feeling that my three to five months in Cambodia may not give me enough time to fully break the language and culture barrier that is so critical in the work I do.

After all the work was done for the week it was time to take off my Kiva hat and put on my wide brimmed hat, clip on my fanny pack, break out my 10 cameras and see some sights (mostly figuratively). I think it would be impossible to walk away from Angkor Wat and the countless temples around it and not be just completely bowled over by the sheer magnitude of what was constructed so long ago. The city in its prime was the largest pre-industrial city in the world, bigger than New York City!!!

I think the following description of a procession of the Khmer King in 1296 by Zhou Daguan, a Chinese diplomat is a powerful example of the strength the empire possessed in its hay day:

“When the king goes out, troops are at the head of the escort; then come flags, banners and music. Palace women, numbering from three to five hundred, wearing flowered cloth, with flowers in their hair, hold candles in their hands, and form a troupe. Even in broad daylight, the candles are lighted. Then come other palace women, carrying lances and shields, the king’s private guards, and carts drawn by goats and horses, all in gold, come next. Ministers and princes are mounted on elephants, and in front of them one can see, from afar, their innumerable red umbrellas. After them come the wives and concubines of the king, in palanquins, carriages, on horseback and on elephants. They have more than one hundred parasols, flecked with gold. Behind them comes the sovereign, standing on an elephant, holding his sacred sword in his hand. The elephant’s tusks are encased in gold.”

Anyway, it was a truly amazing week; I learned a lot, had a lot of fun and will never forget it. I have put together a little video, using the phrase of legendary New York Mets announcer Bob Murphy, as a little “happy recap” of my week there . Hope you enjoy.

Being a Kiva Fellow in Southeast Asia you meet many small business owners. Some of these business owners sell what I like to call “culinary adventures”. So as not to offend people, you get a chance to try many of the dishes. Over the course of my seven months, I’ve discovered after a while to stop asking what it is, and just try it. Some have left their impressions on me though, and I thought I’d share them with you.
Let’s see, in Cambodia you have fried tarantula and various bugs such as beetle, cricket, and bee larva. The most delicious and famous ones come from the Kampong Cham region, northeast of Phnom Penh. You can get them on the side of the road as you motorbike by, or at any local street market.

"love, love, love me some good tarantula!"

You also have dog. This dish was bought for me by Rong, a Cambodian friend. He told me, “You have to try it since you don’t have it in the US, and after you try it, you must text me what you think.” I was told that dog is a meat that makes you warm. It is eaten mainly by men and coupled with beer. The best dog restaurant in Phnom Penh is just east of the Boung Keng Kong Market.

And I did have a beer or two with it. It just went down better with a beer. My stomach is still upset just thinking about it.

You also have boiled duck fetus eggs called “pong tea koun”. Fortunately, I only had one opportunity to eat it, and my Cambodian friends at CREDIT-MFI let me slide on that one as I watched them chow-down. As they pulled the fetus from its shell, I could see the partially formed baby duck complete with head, neck, beak, and wings. It was explained to me that you can buy “pong tea koun” at different fetus stages, a few days old to 2-weeks old. It all depends on your taste. It was the nastiest looking thing I had ever seen someone eat. It is said that they give you strength and energy.

Now, Khmer and Filipino cuisines do not have much in common, but they do seem to share the same love for boiled duck fetus eggs. In Tagalog, it is called “balut”, and unfortunately, this time my Filipino friends at ASKI-MFI would not take, “No” for an answer.

Now, if you eat “balut” like a lady, you don’t pull the embryo out of the shell, you eat it bit by bit with a little spoon so you don’t have to actually see what you are eating. Lucky for me, the ladies at ASKI-MFI eat “balut” like men which is what they required of me. To eat “balut” like a man, you pull the entire fetus out of its shell in order to see the almost formed fetus duck body . It usually takes about 2-3 bites to completely eat.

Balut, see the fetus duck head on the right?

Needless to say my “culinary adventures” continue. I will be in Cabanatuan City, Philippines with ASKI-MFI for the next three months bringing you Kiva client stories and blogs. Hope you enjoy them, I am off to lunch now.

Hmmmmm, should I have goat or more balut?

One testament to the power of the Fellow’s network, as described in Julie Ross’s excellent post The Importance Of My Fellow Fellows, is the existence of these two videos below. No sooner had Abby Gray (KF6) suggested via a mass email that it would be useful to have A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story Of A Kiva Loan in French so that she can show it to her MFI in Francophone Africa, than offers to translate/edit poured in from around the fellosphere. “Spanish would be great too” lead to a similar rumbling from the Latin American contingent.

Within three days I had both translations, thrice checked over. And a lot of work on my hands. Et voila! Only… ahem…  a-month-and-a-half later, and the videos are finished.

To link directly to Un Puñado de Dólares, use this link: http://www.vimeo.com/3479976

To link directly to Une Poignée de Dollars, use this link: http://www.vimeo.com/3445730

To download either video, go to the Vimeo page (French/Spanish) of the video, scroll down and on the right-hand side below the viewing stats there is a Download section where you can download the Quicktime version (you will need Quicktime player which can be downloaded for free on the Quicktime Download Page for PC or Mac.

A thousand fistfuls of thanks to Abby Gray, Jessica Chervin, Cynthia McMurry, Monica Chavez Arriaza, and Brice Richel.

HELP PLEASE: If anyone knows how best to get these videos seen by the French and Spanish speaking world, please let me know or distribute as you see fit!

Coming soon… A Fistful Of Dollars… in Japanese!!

On Monday I was able to meet with a few Kiva borrowers for the first time. I thought I had a good appreciation of both the huge physical barriers that Kiva is able to overcome and the strength that so many of the borrowers possess. I was wrong on both counts. Just going out and visiting 5 clients took all day and the individuals I was able to visit with were more inspiring than I ever could have imagined. I put together a short video in hopes to share some of that experience.

Kiva Happy Hour in Phnom Penh

I once heard that Kentucky Fried Chicken conducted a market survey on their brand and found that the words “Kentucky”, “Fried”, and “Chicken” each had negative psychological associations. Hence the change to the more deliciously ambiguous “KFC”.

If this is true, then “Kiva Happy Hour” must surely invoke feelings of warmth and joyous goodwill in most people. Take one fuzzy “innovative-slash-fantastic” organisation, add cheap drinks and nice people, and, as we say in England, Bob’s your uncle… good times.

This is precisely what happened in the Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh on Thursday in the third week of February. Thanks to everyone who came and to Sanjaya Bagopunyasena for doing most of the organising.

A Fine Fellow

Teresa Dunbar (KF5), right, sells Kiva like a pro. Kiva borrower photos show in back.

All profits from the sale of Kiva shirts are being lent on Kiva to borrowers in Cambodia

Hollie the designer with Katie Davis, KF7

Kiva Fellows new and old (I mean old as in KF6, not age ok?)

Sophany and Sophanith of AMK

Talking about microfinance and enjoying it

Limited Edition Kiva T-shirts

Step aside Gucci… microfinance t-shirts are SO this season. Hitting the runways (mainly of airports in West Timor and Phnom Penh) are the brand new limited edition Kiva “Loner/Loaner” t-shirts. Designed by Hollie Harrington of London, and produced in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, these shirts will add a dash of microcredit chic to any outfit.

Are you a loner or a loaner? Or perhaps even a lender?

If you would like one of these t-shirts there are a few left over in the AMK office in Phnom Penh. Otherwise contact me and I can send you the design files so you can get them printed locally. But only if all profits are re-invested on Kiva!

Kiva Fellows struck by lightning

Kiva Fellows Ball, Briggs, and Dunbar looked Danger squarely in the eye and said “Not today, we’ve got Kiva work to do!” when their plane was struck twice by lightning en route to their new assignments. Thanks to the Flip cameras distributed by Kiva and in true Kiva Fellows tradition this near-death moment was, of course, captured on video. OK so I added sound effects.

Flip video cameras: So simple, even a racoon can use it

Successful applicants for the Kiva Fellows programme generally need to be a bit tech savvy to handle the equipment they will use in the field. But the new Flip video cameras that were issued to KF7 are reputedly simple enough that even monkeys can use them.

Upon hearing this, I reacted as any sensible person would. “Sure, but how about racoons?”.

"How do you paws this thing?"

Note to Kiva: No Flip video cameras were harmed in the making of this video.

Banking conferences in and of themselves are really boring. I attended my share of them as a corporate banking analyst in New York City. Keynote speakers, break-out sessions, networking events, and trade shows all packed into two days of conference center bliss. The Cambodia National Banking Conference held in Phnom Penh February 19-20^th was no exception to this formula, however, it was by far the most exciting and significant BORING banking conference I have ever attended.

My name is Katie Davis and I am a new Kiva Fellow (KF7) working with AMK in Cambodia. At 26 years old I have a few year of business experience behind me, and this seemed like the perfect time in life to step away from the corporate world and do something off the beaten path. I am thrilled to be in Cambodia working in microfinance. I had to chuckle when at the end of my first week at AMK I found myself seated in a huge conference room full of people in black suits, awaiting the start of the first keynote address. This feels so familiar! Given the context, however, there was nothing ordinary about this particular banking conference. Here is why.

Pointing out my name on official attendee roster

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) was established as a regulatory organization in 1954 when Cambodia gained independence from French colonial rule. The NBC began printing its own national currency, the Riel, in order to terminate the monetary alliance with the Vietnamese and Laos currencies. The NBC created a few state-owned banks and a series of reforms in the 1960’s and early 1970’s liberalized the banking system and allowed for private banks to operate in Cambodia under the regulation and supervision of the NBC. The Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975 and on April 17^th, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) was shut down. Cambodia’s banking system was destroyed and Riel banknotes were no longer used.

In the difficult economic times we face today, government and regulating bodies around the world are becoming increasingly involved in sovereign banking systems on both the private and public entity level. Given this trend, it is almost impossible for me to imagine how a nation would function without a currency and without a central bank during times of distress, but this was the state of affairs in Cambodia during the terrible 4 year reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

The Bank of Cambodia was re-established on October 10^th, 1979 and the rebuilding began, which was no small task considering there was no currency reserve, no document trail, and limited human resources (many intellectuals and businessmen were killed, scattered, or remained in hiding in the years immediately following the nightmare that was the Khmer Rouge). The Cambodian banking system is still in its infancy, but great strides have been made in the last 25 years and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has evolved into a legitimate regulating body once again recognized by the international financial community. There are currently 24 commercial banks, 5 private banks, and more than 26 registered Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s) operating in Cambodia.

Conference Room @ Naga Casino in Phnom Penh

Banking Cambodia: Modernization of the Banking & Microfinance Industry in Cambodia held at the Naga World Hotel in Phnom Penh February 19-20th, 2009 was Cambodia’s first ever national bank conference. It was an honor to attend as a representative of Angkor Mikroheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK) and the Kiva Fellows Program. Microfinance is thriving in Cambodia and it is exciting to see that the member institutions of the Cambodia Microfinance Association have a seat at the table alongside the commercial and private banks. Microfinance is inherently part of Cambodian’s banking structure due to the large number of Khmer people who receive microcredit loans as opposed to loans from commercial banks.

Since this was only my second week in Cambodia, the conference provided an introduction to key industry players and also gave me some perspective on the overall economic landscape and the four primary drivers of Cambodia’s GDP: the garment industry, agriculture, construction, and tourism. That being said, there were also some drawback to the conference (which ironically was held at a casino) – shameless sales plugs by banking technology companies, and subtle references to the fact many things are negotiable for the right price in Cambodia when it comes to the government and business community trying to attract foreign investment.

I’m not going to lie, I had a difficult time staying alert and awake through all 35 presentations, and from the looks of it so did many of the other conference attendees. Cambodia has finally joined the rest of the world in hosting BORING banking conferences, which is actually quite EXCITING given the turbulent recent history and the role that microfinance has had in rebuilding the economic situation in this nation.

Kiva Fellows attending Banking Cambodia: Drew (KF7), Jeff (KF7), Katie (KF7) Sanjaya (KF5), Teresa (KF5) Not pictured: Julie (KF7), Kieran (KF6), John (KF6)

Hi Fellows Blog readers,

My name is Jeff Zira, and I’m a Kiva Fellow (round 7) in Cambodia. I’ll be working with the MFI CREDIT in the capital city, Phnom Penh, for about four months. I’m very excited to start my fellowship here, and am looking forward to meeting clients so I can directly learn how microfinance affects them.

On Friday, I arrived at the tiny, one-lane-runway airport, where three officers from CREDIT were waiting to pick me up. The heat was intense, with the humid sunshine beating down on the dusty roads near the airport. I was taken to my guesthouse to drop my bags off, and then to my MFI so I could introduce myself. I felt immediately comfortable among the friendly, welcoming staff. I had my first taste of delicious Khmer food at CREDIT’s group lunch, which only cost one dollar.

(a short clip of some of CREDIT’s employees eating lunch)

However, after a few hours, I realized that the I aches I felt were not a result of sitting in uncomfortable seats on the plane, but were early symptoms of the flu — not a great way to start my adventure.

I spent the weekend trying to orient myself and adjust to the heat (the heat proved to be the more trying of the two tasks). Not only was my body’s thermostat still set on “winter mode,” but the flu kept switching my sense of temperature from fever to chills and then back to fever. Sleeping was not easy.

I did manage to make it out to Wat Phnom though, one of the most important temples in Phnom Penh. Since I’m more familiar with very low-key Japanese Buddhist shrines and temples, the colors and music surprised me.

(the colorful display at Wat Phnom)

On Monday, I made my condition worse by eating something that made my GI tract hurt so much that I couldn’t eat for 24 hours. Still, as I rode home from work on the back of an unsafe motorbike amidst the lawless rush-hour traffic, I noticed my mood steadily improving. Maybe it was the heat, the dizziness from the flu, or the lightheadedness from my fast, but I felt incredibly alive. I felt so in awe of the epic beauty of the massive pinkish clouds overhead, so connected to the feeling of life emanating from the throngs of people and shouting children, so rejuvenated by the uniquely “Cambodian” pop music, and so warmed by the heat of the evening that I couldn’t help smiling for the entire ride home.

Before leaving, my image of Cambodia was based on the stereotypical developing country: unsafe, lawless, and unclean. But since my arrival, I’ve been struck by the welcoming atmosphere and the life that pulses in the streets. I hope that I’m able to make a positive contribution to this wonderful country and its people during my time here as a Kiva Fellow.

Please check out the loans from CREDIT, one of Kiva’s largest and oldest partners, or join CREDIT’s lending team!

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!!!

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

Zinllahbodin’s loan revisions

Cecilia Andoh loan revisions

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.

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!

Posted in Cambodia, Hattha Kaksekar Limited, KF6 (Kiva Fellows 6th Class) ]]> http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/12/26/2668/feed/ 5 kanaeochiai dscf60861 dscf6182