Posts filed under ‘El Salvador’
What’s next for KF16? (Part 1)
Compiled by Laurie Young, KF16, Indonesia
I know! We can’t believe it either! Our Kiva Fellowships, as the 16th class, have come to an end. So what’s in store for us once we return to our homes? Or perhaps, stay in the field for another fellowship? Read on for the next chapter in the lives of some of the 16th Class of Kiva Fellows Alumni.
Continue Reading 2 January 2012 at 08:00 laurie4485 3 comments
60 Tips from Kiva Fellows
Compiled by Kate Bennett, KF16 Peru
The sixteenth class of Kiva Fellows has all but left the field- but we’re by no means done talking about our experiences. We’ve collectively spent 422 weeks in the field (just over 8 years!) and worked an estimated 16,650 hours at Kiva field partners around the world. Needless to say, we’ve got a lot of opinions about how to use this time wisely.
Now, we’re no experts in living or working abroad (though we sure do like it), but we have some nuggets of wisdom to offer up for those of you transitioning into a life abroad or beginning your next Kiva Fellowship. Stick by these tips, and you can’t go wrong. (And for more hints and tips, check out 33 Tips from Kiva Fellows (written November 2009) or 45 More Tips from Kiva Fellows in South America.) Enjoy!
Continue Reading 30 December 2011 at 04:00 Kate Bennett 4 comments
The Little Things
By Andrea Ramirez, KF 16, El Salvador & Costa Rica.
I love double rainbows, too.
I love hot water.
I also love designated bus stops, and having lunch with co-workers..not at my desk.
I love the noise that the leaves of plantain trees make when the wind hits them.
I love having a garbage removal service..instead of having to burn the garbage to get rid of it.
I love the smile on a borrower´s face when they´re told their loan will be disbursed in a couple of days, or when I show them what their profile on Kiva.org looked like.
I love how the face of a borrower lights up when I ask about their business.
I love being trapped in a vehicle with a loan officer for hours, and learning why they took on the job in the first place – and why are they still at it.
I love talking to the head of a microfinance institution and poke at what the future looks like for their organization, what are their challenges, and trying to understand why things are the way they are.
It took me four months, probably 100 hrs on a bus, many dead bugs, and two countries to realize how much I love these and many other things.
In the process I´ve had to let go of many other things I also love. Little things like a dryer for my clothes, and big things like people and relationships. I am shocked by how quickly these last few months have gone by. More than anything, I am in owe of the people I´ve met and what I´ve leared from them. I am humbled and thankful for the experience I´ve had as a Kiva Fellow, and without a doubt this is the best thing I could have ever done. I know my work in El Salvador and Costa Rica is far from over, and that the relationships I´ve made in the region will last beyond my fellowship. I also thank you, the people who have supported the MFIs I´ve worked with (Fundacion Campo and Fundacion Mujer) by making loans to their clients on Kiva.
I love El Salvador!
..And the open skies in Costa Rica!
If there is anything that will always remain with me after this experience is the fact that we can all do something to help make the world a better place for those who have been less fortunate (and future generations). I don´t mean it in a paternalistic way, but really thinking about how we can do a little something to bridge the gap between what government and capitalism have accomplished so far, and what still needs to be done. I believe in paying it forward with more than good intentions. You don´t need to leave your home and your loved ones to volunteer abroad to do so (although if you can, and you find the right fit for you, do it!). You can, from the comfort of your home, make a $25 loan to a microentrepreneur anywhere in the world through Kiva, or give a Kiva giftcard to someone you love for the holidays. The impact of microloans and microfinance overall continues to be a controversial topic. And although I´ve confirmed that microfinance is not the panacea for inequality and poverty, I´ve also confirmed it can be a very efficient tool when paired with other mechanisms. Particularly, when paired with people with the undying desire to innovate for a better future. A future when the little things are available and enjoyable for most of the world.
Andrea was part of the awesome 16th class of Kiva Fellows working in El Salvador and Costa Rica. She is sad to leave Central America, and thankful to those who helped make her fellowship possible. Please support Kiva´s mission by making a loan on Kiva.org – it´s super easy!
Update from the Field: Expanding the Reach of Microfinance, Downsizing Development + Why We Kiva
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda
This week, you have no fewer than 14 new articles to choose from on the Kiva fellows blog: Let the fellows take you along on borrower visits across the world. Learn how Kiva field partners expand the reach of microfinance in Rwanda, fill the microfinance donut hole in Sierra Leone and improve social performance in Uganda. Find out what poverty is like in urban Tajikistan and rural Burkina Faso. Get inspired by one of the creative ways to bring renewable energy to the developing world in the form of a soccer ball. And finally, watch a video of “Why We Kiva” to get a glimpse of why Kiva fellows jump at the opportunity to be thrown half way around the world to work with Kiva’s many local field partners.
Continue Reading 31 October 2011 at 02:49 Kathrin Gerner 5 comments
Update from the Field: Starting Capital, Development Levels + Adventurous Borrower Visits
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda
This week on the Kiva fellows blog, start your journey in Indonesia and read about some early lessons of a Kiva fellow. Then continue on to the Americas to take part in El Salvador’s independence day celebrations, find out how to start a business with 26 cents in Honduras, learn about the different levels of development of Bolivia and Sierra Leone, and finally go on an adventurous borrower visit in Nicaragua.
Continue Reading 26 September 2011 at 05:01 Kathrin Gerner 6 comments
I love saying ‘cachiporras’
By Andrea Ramirez, KF16, El Salvador.
Last Thursday, September 15th, we celebrated Independence day here in El Salvador. However, El Salvador was not alone in the celebrations as Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua also had their own festivities on that very same day. It was a colorful day, and I want to share a bit of the awesome show that I got to enjoy here in San Miguel.
Continue Reading 20 September 2011 at 15:48 Andrea Ramirez 1 comment
It’s not just about the money
By Andrea Ramirez, KF16, El Salvador
In recent years the microfinance sector has been hit with harsh criticism about the real impact it has on improving the lives of the low-income clients it serves. If it is true that microfinance, including micro-credit, is not the panacea for poverty; it is also true that Microfinance Institutions (“MFIs”) don’t have an easy job. MFIs and their staff are, in my opinion, the true heroes. Their loan officers and administrative staff are those who are out there, day after day, meeting clients and trying to help them achieve their dreams – and yes, realizing dreams doesn’t come cheap. Although there are many great institutions providing more than microfinance services (often times called “microfinance +”), I have yet to come across an operating model as unique as that of Fundacion Campo (“FC”).
Continue Reading 7 September 2011 at 08:00 Andrea Ramirez 2 comments
Updates from the Field: Loan Sharks, Snapshots + “the Country with a Smile”
Each Kiva borrower enjoys his or her own borrower profile page. We’ve all seen these pages: they acquaint us with the borrower’s story, plans for the future, country, and a photo in their business or home. Borrower profiles present us with a clear snapshot of the ebbs and flows of a borrower’s life. But how can we begin to flesh out what’s beyond the edges of the screen? On the Fellow’s blog, of course!
This week Kiva Fellows bring us a little closer to our borrowers. We try to walk in the shoes of those living under a dollar a day in Nicaragua. We learn about the power of accredited microfinance institutions for the average Ecuadorian. We get a glimpse (and a sample!) of traditional El Salvadorian fare. We marvel at brilliant images of borrowers in their element in Chile and Colombia. And finally we depart Latin America for Senegal, where a Latin phrase can teach us about entrepreneurs the world over: they can, because they think they can. And they do, just as soon as they have the capital to do it.
Continue Reading 29 August 2011 at 02:00 Kate Bennett 8 comments
Everything is sweeter in El Salvador
By Andrea Ramirez, KF16, El Salvador
Pastries in Usulutan, near one of the offices of Fundacion Campo
During each of the meals I’ve had here in San Miguel thus far, I’ve noticed something fascinating: everything seems to be sweeter in El Salvador. I started noticing this during breakfast, when I tried the orange juice — which is so sweet that could be considered dessert. I can tell it is natural orange juice, but whether or not it has sugar added is yet to be determined. I also noticed that the chocolate flavored cereal that I usually eat at home, is particularly chocolat-ier. The coffee is not even bitter, so no need for sugar. The quantity of sweet breads and pastries available is astounding. They are incredibly addicting and can be found everywhere.
Continue Reading 28 August 2011 at 09:00 Andrea Ramirez 7 comments
Update from the Field: Dangerous Streets, New Vocabulary + A Senegalese Spring
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo
This week, the Kiva fellows invite you to accompany them across Africa and South and Central America: Take a walk in the streets of San Salvador. Improve your language skills by adding a few words in three of South Africa’s most widely spoken languages to your vocabulary. Look poverty in the face in Cameroon. Continue by learning more about the latest riots in Senegal. Find out how money helps to provide dignity in Ecuador. And finish by learning about the importance of family unity in El Salvador.
Continue Reading 11 July 2011 at 02:00 Kathrin Gerner 5 comments
Prehistoric Drawings and Four Intertwined Client Visits
An intense trip thought the rural mountains of eastern El Salvador made us think about the importance of family unity through the clay and string and flour that intertwine these 4 stories.
The day began with a visit to a cave which has prehistoric drawings that date back thousands of years. Our attention was drawn to several of the figures which were of couples holding hands. We didn’t think much of it then, but that image stayed with us as the day unfolded.
One client visit was to a young woman who weaves hammocks. She invited us in to her house: a tiny shack made of wood, bamboo, cane, and tin with a dirt floor and walls covered with newspaper. Inside was barely room for a bed, a finished hammock and one being made. She uses loans from PADECOMSM to buy materials to make hammocks, improve her house and pay off her small lot all by herself – in tears, she told us that she had recently become a single mother. Her six year-old son recently suffered a facial paralysis when his father left.
Continue Reading 9 July 2011 at 10:56 john.beckwith.farmer 5 comments
Update from the Field: Zulu Weddings, More Country-Specific Microfinance + Fighting Crime
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo
Learn about the tradition of Zulu weddings in South Africa. Find out how Kiva’s partners adapt the concept of microfinance to fit their country’s specific needs: from loans targeting borrowers affected by emigration in Ecuador, over a preference for group loans in El Salvador, to lending coupled with various training programs in Rwanda. Finish off your weekly reading by learning about crime-fighting Kivans in Nicaragua.
Continue Reading 4 July 2011 at 02:30 Kathrin Gerner 8 comments
Walking the Streets
Walking in San Salvador is the stuff nightmares are made of, but not for the reasons you might think.
You have probably heard about the dangers of walking the streets in big cities in Latin America: you’ll be pick-pocketed, purse-snatched, robbed at gunpoint, sequestered, murdered… Those are real threats, but I’d like to discuss a few others that don’t get as much headline space. Here is my list of Less-known Dangers of Walking the Streets of San Salvador.
1) Razorwire is everywhere, often at eyelevel. Frequently it is accompanied by electric wire.
Continue Reading 3 July 2011 at 14:22 john.beckwith.farmer 2 comments
A Consumer, not a Recipient
By Brandon Vaughan, KF12, El Salvador
There is a lot of debate in the world of international development about the role, both positive and negative, that multinational corporations play in developing countries.
Continue Reading 28 August 2010 at 08:00 vaughanbrv 4 comments
Moving Forward in El Salvador
By Brandon Vaughan, KF12, El Salvador
Whether it’s the memory of a drawn-out civil war, stories of gangs and violence, or the influence of one of Central America´s most prolific emigrant communities, El Salvador´s complex past directly relates to the challenges it faces today.
Continue Reading 17 August 2010 at 13:42 vaughanbrv 7 comments
Natural Disasters in Developing Countries – Tropical Storm Agatha
By Matt Raimondi, KF11, Honduras
Tropical Storm Agatha is the first tropical storm of the 2010 Hurricane season and while relatively weak, it is a disturbing reminder of how catastrophic even the weak storms can be for a developing country.
Growing up in a Civil War
The children who lived to tell these stories, have now grown and can tell them with a laugh. These are the kind personal histories a Kiva Fellow can hear as one begins his work with PADECOMSM Credito, Kiva’s newest field partner in El Salvador. PADECOMSM’s strength has come from supporting areas most affected by the civil war.
On a good day, the baker’s children could sell their sweet bread to the army in the morning, and in the afternoon they would be selling the bread to the guerrillas. It was not unusual to ask the young bakers how things were on the other side. Both sides would pay for their bread – perhaps both knew that they might steal the bread once, but there would be no more bread afterward; or perhaps the fighters were ordinary men flung into wars they did not mean to fight. For the young bakers, terms with either side were friendly; both sides would sometimes borrow the bakers’ old truck to run certain errands.
On a bad day, the curfew would restrict all movement from one’s home. Business was impossible, entertainment was negligible. The days were never ending. On the really bad days, the army and the guerrilla would both have shoot outs in the village. No matter how many times it had happened in the past, – out of the blue or out of the dark night – it was sudden, unpredictable, and utterly terrifying. It had been happening for years, for how many more years would it go on? Each time pandemonium broke loose, a merciless stray bullet could hit a mother, a brother, or a friend in another part of town – and there would be no hospital to treat the wound.
In the eastern part of El Salvador, and especially in the state of Morazan, it is easy to find people who had to run for their lives as they are caught under gun fire between the army and the guerrillas. How to forget the running of a mother holding her three day old baby on one hand, and tightly gripping her three small children on other side, while making them desperately wave white flags?
Click here to support PADECOMSM’s borrowers!!
Carlos Pierre, KF11
PADECOMSM & El Salvador’s Civil war
PADECOMSM Credito has its roots in an organization that filled the public service vacuum that was created during the civil war as the guerrilla uprising pushed out the government forces.
Continue Reading 20 May 2010 at 15:02 Carlos Pierre 3 comments
An Appropriate Interest Rate: The Character of the Microfinance Industry
By Dennis A. Espinoza, KF10, El Salvador
When I first heard about microfinance I saw it as a great way to make reliable returns. The emphasis on the social returns was great and the possibility of financial returns was even better! I’m in!
Turns out it’s not that simple.
A recent New York Times article as well as other news like a recent initial public offering have stirred an old debate. Essentially that comparatively limited borrower options, high interest rates, low default rates and an estimated total asset base of over $20 billion may be fertile ground for excessive profits. An important concern.
So how do we figure out what is an “appropriate” rate of return? Or, in other words, what is a reasonable interest rate?
Continue Reading 19 April 2010 at 18:49 espinoza8 11 comments
Education for your son or your daughter? (you can only afford to pick one)
Imagine you are a mother or a father to both a son and a daughter.
If you only had enough money to send one of your two children to school, which one would you send?
This question was asked to potential microfinance borrowers at a training session led by GHAPE, a microfinance institution (MFI) and Kiva Field Partner based in Bamenda, Cameroon.
The most common answer among the group of 30+ prospective borrowers was my son but I also heard my daughter, the oldest, none and a few others.
The right answer is
10 Fellowship Gems
By Cynthia McMurry, KF8 Ecuador
Over the past year, I have learned valuable lessons about life, gotten to know myself better, greatly enriched my understanding of microfinance, observed the workings of the informal economy in Latin America, been touched by many clients’ stories and experiences, and been proud to represent Kiva at four different MFIs in three South American countries.
Some of my favorite moments, though, have absolutely nothing to do with microfinance. They’re little cultural quirks, lifestyle adaptations, or just silly everyday things that make me smile, remember that I am not from here, and cherish the experience that much more.
Some of my favorites:
Best heckle: Anyone who’s as white as me and who has tried to run in public in Latin America knows what it’s like to be heckled. You usually get whistles, catcalls, and hear things like, “Faster!” “Run!” and “ONE two three ONE two three.” After a while you learn not to pay too much attention and to instead focus your energy on watching out for dogs and traffic.
Out running in Trujillo at 7am one morning, a driver stuck his head out the window and yelled “Yuquitas peladas!” (“Little peeled yuccas!”), a metaphorical reference to the whiteness of my legs. By far the most creative heckle ever, plus I’m impressed that he was able to think of it so quickly (especially that early in the morning) and stick his head out of the car window while driving and avoiding traffic mishaps. Kudos. (more…)
El Salvador shifts Left. Poverty still front and center.
The leftist candidate Mauricio Funes won El Salvador’s presidential election last night, ending 20 years of rule by the rightist ARENA government. Funes’ party the FMLN had developed out of a Marxist inspired guerilla movement that opposed ARENA’s government during the country’s gruesome civil war in the 1980’s. While FMLN supporters took to the streets last night, riding into the capital on beat-up pickup trucks packed with red-shirted youth, waving FMLN flags to celebrate their first presidential victory, there was a more somber mood in ARENA headquarters and in reports from the international press. Though ARENA has spent years crafting a free-market economy, with a stabilized banking system, a free trade agreement with the United States and courting multinational investors El Salvador still remains one of Central America’s poorest economic performers. Over half of Salvadorans live in poverty, without access to consistent food, medicine, work and often quality education. 20% of El Salvador’s GDP is comprised of remittance payments from family members working (illegally) in the United States. More than just a statistic, though, remittances have had overwhelming effects on the social political and economic realities of El Salvador including microfinance. Often small entrepreneurs can only afford to cover their monthly interest payments with support from the money transfers from family living abroad. Especially now, during tough economic times in the United States remittance payments have been slowing causing wide-spread loan defaults and instability in the MFI industry in El Salvador.
Last night I stood in the streets of San Salvador sharing in the excitement of Salvadorans at a possible new direction for their tiny country. Some old enough to clearly remember the bloody civil war of the 80’s but many victims of an ongoing struggle against hunger, lack of work and no hope for change. Their songs and dancing where encouraging, but didn’t distract me enough from noticing the hundreds of vendors that had taken to the streets hoping to sell party t-shirts, sausages and light-up head-wear to celebrants. After all, there’s work to be done and many mouths to be fed in El Salvador. Good luck, Funes.
Entrepreneurs take to the streets to sell Funes "gear" while the masses celebrate.
iPhone Water Pump
Kiva is a “sexy”, high-tech cog in the economic development machine, conceived in where else but the dot-com capital of the world: Silcon Valley, California, USA, North America. At the very least I’m jealous at how Kiva seems to be a citizen of both the new “read the New York Times on your laptop in starbucks” and the traditional “Financial calculator at US AID” development worlds. Also, as a product of the AOL instant messenger generation, I would be the first to admit that I am incredibly energized by the emer
gence of social business, high-tech hybrids. Slick web pages, the same nifty gadgets I use to check local movie times at Fandango.com, and even some really cool hardware to make a difference in the world; right now, right where I am, with the tools and skills I already have (Kiva on your iPhone anyone?). I’m recalling a trip I took last fall to Northen Ghana in which I stumbled into a rural village library and to a tech-enthusiasts dream: several young Ghanaian students huddled around the monitor glow of a One Laptop per Child machine trying to get the operating system to open an excel file. Here was my specialty: a way to express my love for micro processors and working with others ; a process I had been working on since age 5 when I spoke my first words: “C:\dir /p” Even back on the Kiva homepage front, I’ve fallen victim to the seductions of .orgs where I can create a micro endowment at Star Bucks or a virtual parent-teacher association during a long layover in Bogotá. Seriously cool.
But then, yesterday on a visit to an organic farming coop in the mountains outside of San Salvador, El Salvador I had an out of cell phone service experience: I was reminded about the nitty grity work of community growing from the ground up, but more importantly how exciting and rewarding it can be. Donning her sweat-stained Che Guevara hat, Mercedes the local community organizer in the Salvadoran pueblito, enthusiastically shuttled us from one “shared work” project to another. With a $1k microloan in cash directly group of university students, the community had developed a good old-fashioned, plastic piping, brick tank, and muddy ditches water system to supply their organic crops of c
orn, tomatoes, onions, squash, oranges, cilantro, carrots, tilapia fish and countless other plants I wish I could understand in Spanish. Her crowning achievement since increasing total food production by three fold from last year are her Cuban designed, homemade water pumps (She pointed out several times that they were designed in Cuba). These two pumps, which each cost about $50 in parts, are made from used metal piping and a fire extinguisher tank, use no electricity or gasoline, and are able to pump river water about 50 vertical meters up the side of a mountain to supply acres of farm land with necessary irrigation. Can your iPhone do that? Needless to say, I was quite impressed by the ingenuity and persistence of the organic farming cooperative that has worked patiently for years on this agricultural project and are now hoping to reinvest their microcredit fund into personal vegetable gardens in each family’s home. With little more than sweat and some used parts from a hardware store the community has been able to drastically improve the economic and emotional quality of life in their community. Next time I visit I’ve planned to propose my new partnership with the organic farming cooperative: cubanwaterpumps.com
Mi casa, tu casa: A Kiva Fellow at the Apoyo Integral field partner in El Salvador
My name is Sam Baker, and for the next several months I will be working with Kiva’s field partner Apoyo Integral in El Salvador. Having only been in-country for about a week and recently finished with an or
ientation of Integral’s microfinancial services, I thought I would take the time to highlight an especially unique feature of Apoyo Integral’s loan offerings in El Salvador: technical assistance in home building. Kiva community feedback coupled with longer fundraising times for home improvement and construction projects on the site suggests a slight hesitation among Kiva lenders considering a loan for the sake of home improvement. Having said this, it is not unreasonable to ask for example how a home improvement directly affects an entrepreneurs income, ability to pay off the loan and more importantly; provide a more secure and sustainable future for their families. Fortunately I had the opportunity to explore this question during my visit with Apoyo Integral’s sister project the Salvadoran Foundation for Integral Support’s housing technical assistance program: Tu Proyecto (Your Project). Tagging along for a day of work withTu Proyecto’s civil engineers, I watched how they offered their FREE engineering expertise to four of Apoyo Integral’s home improvement microcredit clients. Clients are advised on everything from cement mixing formulas, structural design, layout, ventilation, lighting as well as water and electricity issues. (In one case a technical assistance engineer was perceptive enough to recommend that a client might move a window to another wall closer to where he planned to place the kitchen table, thereby allowing his school aged children better light to study by during the day!) In addition to learning about a truly useful and uncommon service to homeowners in El Salvador, I also was also presented some data with which to respond to the “housing hesitation” issue: 3 out of 4 visits to Apoyo Lenders happened to be living and working under the same roof. The first lender was a photographer who was intending on building an addition to his house. The Tu Proyecto engineers advised him of a better way to secure his roof from the weather as they feared rain water might soon leak into his house, effectively destroying all the digital photography equipment he uses for his livelihood. The second lender was a farmer who needed to weatherproof his house to store grain, and the third was a carpenter who was building a larger home and considering how he could incorporate his workshop into the design.
Though these are only several examples from many, I believe it is interesting to illustrate how important a home can be for small Salvadoran businesses and indeed small entrepreneurs a
round the world. Not to mention all the benefits of health, safety, and personal dignity that come with owning a decent home. In short, here is Apoyo Integral’s value proposition to Kiva users who invest in their housing loans: Apoyo Integral uses the discounted capital received from Kiva to pay the Tu Proyecto engineers to do free construction evaluations for their clients. This means that in addition to clients being filtered for their financial ability to repay a loan, home owners receive professional engineering advice to ensure an effective investment in a family’s future!
