Kiva Stories from the Field

The smell of a farm is one thing that is familiar to me, but not much else is.  It’s amazing how removed you can be from a process that is so central to life, but it’s true.  Feel like I should take some kind of crash course in farming, something that would qualify me to report on the majority of the businesses here.  But I’m not qualified and that’s that.  This is the amateur’s version of the life of Kiva clients in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Farming is not a business, it’s at least 10 businesses wrapped into one.  These women manage everything, from the planting of seeds to the final selling at the market. What they don’t sell they use to feed their families and keep their animals alive. They share barns & supplies with their neighbors, trade food, and keep each other afloat.  There is a lot of talk about sustainable living these days, but the only time I have witnessed it is here in Bosnia.

It’s tempting to glamorize the life of a farmer, but since it’s anything but I should stop that right here. 14 hour days are the norm. The weather can be unkind, and there go your crops.  A cow dies, your flock of sheep are wiped out by disease, and there goes all your income.  It’s a job in the end, like any other, but a lot less forgiving. I don’t know how they cope with that ongoing disappointment, with the fickle nature of fate.  I wonder if they get any kind of joy out of their work, like many city dwellers imagine they would.  But these women have a lot to deal with. There is not a lot of time for all these questions.

It is awkward to be the outsider here, this strange intermediary between the lender and the borrower, and my awareness of this gives me pause whenever I meet with clients and try to explain what I’m doing here.  Many get a kick out of seeing their business profile, but I wonder what they really think about all that goes on behind this. What continues to amaze me most about Kiva is what it has created—an amazingly dedicated lending community, a force of nature itself. I want to tell clients that there are many people so interested in hearing everything they have to say. That they send their hopes & wishes to them, via comments on a website.  It’s hard to explain this phenomenon at all, even in English.   

I feel lucky to be in this strange & wonderful position, to be here at all, to be able to meet these clients.  But the distance between any two people can be small yet great at the same time.  There’s a lot I wish to know about these women, but not a lot I can know.  I just wish they could all just speak to you for themselves, and tell you what they really thought.

 Here at least is what I think.  The women I meet are strong and they are fighters. They find new ways to make the most out of their land every day.  They have better business sense & work ethic than you can imagine. They take care of their family, and they look out for each other. They are kind & gracious despite all the bad luck they’ve had. And they all deserve better luck than they have had. Though I may not be doing a good job in communicating anything here, I hope they know that they have a lot of people on their side, and that the world has not forgotten them.

To fund a new business from Zene za Zene, click here (if these run out more will be posted soon!)

Zehra, Kiva Client

Sadika, Kiva Client, with her family

Vesna, Kiva Client, with her daughter

Emira, Kiva Client, with her husband

 

Redžiba and Namka, Kiva Clients, also neighbors & distant cousins

When I told anyone I was going to Bosnia this summer, the basic reaction I got was confusion.  Everyone was supportive & excited, but definitely surprised.  I was pretty surprised too.  When you sign up for experiences like this, you never know where you will end up.  In this case I’ve had the good fortune of ending up at Women for Women International, and wanted to take time to shed light on the both the organization & the people who do pretty amazing work here & around the world.

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina actually led directly to the inception of Women for Women International, after the founders came here in the early 90s to volunteer with the aid process.  While they quickly realized that women would be the most marginalized group in post-war Bosnia, no grass roots efforts were in place to help them recover.  In 1993 Women for Women International officially launched, and has since expanded to bring direct aid to over 153,000 women survivors in warn torn countries around the world, serving today in Iraq, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, just to name a few.

Zene za Zene is one of two sites (along with Women for Women Afghanistan) to focus on microcredit services, along with the educational & job skills training programs they run to prepare disadvantaged women for the workforce.  Around 60% of their clients on Kiva work in agriculture & raise livestock in the country’s small villages—in a stagnant economy it’s the only option many people have.  Poverty is an issue that affects women of all ages & backgrounds.  Even those who own land can have pretty meager incomes, and most lack real access to capital except through microfinance.  In a little over a decade, Zene za Zene has lent over $32 million to women entrepreneurs throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In my time here I work mainly with our Kiva Coordinator, who collects information from credit officers and keeps up with posting & journaling requirements.  Credit officers spend most of their time finding & interviewing new borrowers, as well as visiting current clients to ensure their success. In these first 6 months of 2008, Zene za Zene has around 4,900 active clients; that number is likely to double by year’s end. As simple as it is to lend on Kiva, the mechanisms to ensure due diligence, social impact, and sustainability keep many people here very busy. 

It’s funny how when you travel, there is so much anxiety about everything that will be different, you can be put at ease by the smallest things. I was immediately comforted by the familiarity of working in office again, the regular schedule, the abundance of snacks and coffee offered at all times. Working here has kept me from getting too lost—in more ways than one.   It’s just reassuring to be around some of the millions of people in the world today who work diligently and patiently to help others help themselves. And it’s good to know you can find such things in places you’d never knew you’d be.

I wanted to share something about Sarajevo itself, but to keep from making this too long, I have included some pictures below of the old town near where I live, and will hopefully have more to go around in some later updates.  Cheers…

To see all currently fundraising loans from Zene za Zene International on Kiva.org, please click here.