Posts filed under ‘Peru’
Wait, What Do You Do Again?
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru
As a Kiva Fellow, no two days are the same. One morning I will wake up at 5am to try to visit a borrower before they head out to work, and the next I’ll be in the office uploading loans or training the Kiva team on how to take a great picture or write a journal worth reading. In fact, as a Kiva Fellow, our job is so diverse that the Kiva staff creates long lists of things for us to do called deliverables. My favorite on these “To Dos” is Borrower Verifications. Essentially, we go into the field and do a spot check to make sure that information uploaded on the Kiva website is real.
Catching the Christmas Spirit
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru
First of all, I love Christmas. The tree, Christmas lights (you can ask my parents about what I did to our house when I was a little kid), hot cider, going over to Grandma´s house on Christmas Eve, eating tamales (everyone has their own Christmas traditions), the stockings, Eggs Benedict Christmas morning, watching my Beagle open up his gifts. The feeling of being around those who you love and those who love you. I love all of it.
Continue Reading 20 December 2010 at 08:00 Eric Burdullis 1 comment
A Look Under the Hood (Fine-tuning an MFI for 2011)
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru
Last weekend, I had the chance to attend Asociación Arariwa´s year end planning retreat out in the Sacred Valley in Urubamba, Peru. More than just spending the weekend having fun with my co-workers at the institution, I was excited to finally see what a microfinance institution (MFI) really is about. On one hand as a Kiva Fellow, I get a very in depth look at how my MFI works, but on the other hand, Kiva is still perceived as a funding source for the MFI so they are constantly “putting their best foot forward”. Arariwa´s 2011 strategic planning retreat was a way for me to see, internally, what microfinance meant to this MFI in Cuzco.
Continue Reading 14 December 2010 at 08:00 Eric Burdullis Leave a comment
Living the Dream
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru
Back when I was just a Kiva lender, I thought how cool it would be to meet one of the borrowers that I had lent too. I mean that is what just about every Kiva lender dreams of, right? You lend out to people halfway across the world all based off of a couple of paragraphs on a website and a 3” by 5” photo. But you never really think twice about how real the needs of the people you are lending money to are or what difference the loan will mean in the borrowers life.
Continue Reading 29 November 2010 at 07:00 Eric Burdullis 3 comments
The Kiva Community
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru
I am always surprised by the power of online social media and networks. Facebook, Twitter, blogging sites like this Wordpress one, dating sites like eHarmony, sharing sites like Freecycle or rating ones like Yelp all command huge followings and powerful networks. The world becomes smaller thanks to sites like Facebook—it is sites like these that allow me to keep in touch with friends while I serve abroad as a Kiva Fellow. Information gathering and sharing from news, to politics, to microfinance happenings or even the latest costume that friends have caused their pets to suffer through becomes easier thanks to Twitter and the ever expanding blogging community. You can connect to date, to recycle, to rate. You make connections with old friends and new ones who share common interests.
Continue Reading 24 November 2010 at 11:00 Eric Burdullis 2 comments
Presenting Manuela Ramos, a Kiva Field Partner
By Julie Shea, KF12, Peru
As I finish up my three month fellowship with Kiva’s Peruvian field partner, Manuela Ramos/CrediMUJER, I would like to share a short video in which Executive Director Gloria Díaz discusses the organization’s work empowering the women of rural Peru, as well as the role Kiva lenders play in supporting that work.
When Cultural Differences Become Frustrations
By Julie Shea, KF12, Peru
Living abroad and dealing with cultural differences will inevitably, at some point, present challenges and frustrations. I think it’s the manner in which we address, deal with, and learn from these challenges that make time spent living in a foreign culture so valuable. One of the challenges I had to deal with during my time in Pucallpa (a city in Peru’s Amazon region) was the attention I got from men as a female foreigner.
Continue Reading 27 October 2010 at 17:00 julieshea Leave a comment
Microfinance Alone is Not Enough
By Julie Shea, KF12, Peru
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between microfinance and economic development of Peru on a countrywide scale. I’m struck by the fact that the microloans procured by female entrepreneurs, while instrumental in allowing the women to better their situations for themselves and their families, seem to have little direct influence on the economic development of Peru as a whole. For example, I have met very few loan recipients whose business activities are creating jobs; the majority of women work by themselves (and for themselves) in the informal economy.
Continue Reading 29 September 2010 at 09:00 julieshea 5 comments
Working to Closer Tolerances, Observation #3
from Casey Unrein, KF12
“They don’t often hit anyone, but they work to closer tolerances than taxi drivers in the USA do.”
The phrase “working to closer tolerances” struck me as lens for analysis of the developing world. The phrase invokes ideas of efficiency and perfection, but also risk and cost. In the developing world a large portion of the population works to closer tolerances than those in the developed world are accustomed. Residents of the developing world often make incredibly efficient use of limited resources and face a high level of risk on a daily basis. Here are some of my observations of closer tolerances in Peru.
Continue Reading 24 September 2010 at 13:00 Casey Unrein Leave a comment
Working to Closer Tolerances, Observation #2
from Casey Unrein, KF12
“They don’t often hit anyone, but they work to closer tolerances than taxi drivers in the USA do.”
The phrase “working to closer tolerances” struck me as lens for analysis of the developing world. The phrase invokes ideas of efficiency and perfection, but also risk and cost. In the developing world a large portion of the population works to closer tolerances than those in the developed world are accustomed. Residents of the developing world often make incredibly efficient use of limited resources and face a high level of risk on a daily basis. Here are some of my observations of closer tolerances in Peru.
Continue Reading 22 September 2010 at 06:00 Casey Unrein 1 comment
The Importance of Context
By Julie Shea, KF12
Since arriving at Manuela Ramos’s Puno office on August 12th, I have attended ten Community Bank monthly meetings and interviewed approximately 70 clients. In theory, the routine is the same: I meet up with the Community Bank’s Loan Officer (sometimes as early as 6am because we have far to travel), and we head off to the meeting together, often traveling via ”combi” (small vans) to ”moto-taxi” (motorcycle taxis) to car to ”moto-taxi”…depending on how remote the location of the meeting is, always the trip involves multiple modes of transportation, often it involves waiting for more passengers (drivers won’t leave until every seat is occupied, preferably all standing room should be occupied too), and sometimes it involves walking the last stretch.
Continue Reading 13 September 2010 at 17:00 julieshea 4 comments
Does Microfinance Empower Women?
Julie Shea, KF12
I can’t recall a time in my life that I felt something was unattainable because I am female. I would by no means argue that women in the United States and Denmark (the two countries I call home) have achieved complete equality, but nonetheless, I have never considered myself a feminist. As I learn about the historical status of women in Peru, I’m beginning to realize that my former resistance to feminist thoughts and movements is frankly a bit ignorant.
Continue Reading 31 August 2010 at 08:22 julieshea 12 comments
Perspectives in the Field
I would like to preface this blog post by apologizing for writing about myself. It is my opinion that the Kiva Fellows Blog is not about the Fellows – rather it is a place for us (the fellows) to let you (the lenders) know what is actually going on in the field; to discuss the realities facing the borrowers, the Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s) and the countries in which we are living. But after a mere week and a half in the field, I’m afraid it’s too early to relay any profound insights about the world of microfinance in Peru. So just this once, I’m going to talk about myself instead – more specifically to explain the perspective through which my later (more profound, obviously) posts will come.
Continue Reading 12 August 2010 at 03:00 julieshea 4 comments
Goodbye Ica
I recently finished up in Ica, Peru and moved north to start my second fellowship in Barranquilla, Colombia. After I left, I combed through everything I grabbed over 12 weeks with my Kiva issue FlipCam to make a little going away video that I thought I’d share on the Fellows blog.
Transportation, Microfinance and the Environment
Transportation has been an integral part of my travels in South America. I have been in cars, vans, buses, scooters, motorcycles, trains, boats, planes, even a bus transported by a boat and of course I have walked.
Why you should support group loans on Kiva
I met some Dutch Kiva lenders during a trip to Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca in Bolivia who don’t like to loan to groups on Kiva.
Both the MFIs I have worked with as a Kiva Fellow, Asociación Arariwa and Emprender offer both group and individual credit products, however, the majority of Arariwa’s clients and 40% of Emprender’s clients work within a banco communal (village bank). A banco communal basically acts like a mini financial institution. The MFI gives each member credit based on the amount they have requested and their ability to pay. Each member saves part of their loan and in some cases, can relend this money within the group and collect interest on this internal loan.
Here are some reasons why group loans work well in microfinance…
Continue Reading 5 March 2010 at 09:26 lethalsheethal 7 comments
More on the “guy behind the guy”
I have a hunch that most lenders on Kiva don’t pay to much attention to field partner profiles. It isn’t hard to understand why: they’re long on text and short on story. Folks looking for a nice, “soft-touch” way of putting their money to good use are happy to trust that Kiva only posts worthy profiles from worthy places. And that’s OK. Kiva does carefully vet its field partners. Skip out on those details, though, and you lose a bit of your voice. From Accion USA to Zene za Zene, each field partner has their own approach to microfinance and their own specific role in their community.
Falso! Parte Dos – How to Tell If Your Money is Fake in Bolivia
Since beginning to work in La Paz, Bolivia with microfinance institution and Kiva partner Emprender, one of the first things I wanted to learn was how to tell a fake Bolivian bill from a real one.
Every Emprender office has a caja (cashier) where clients get their loan disbursement and pay their loan payments. Each cashier has a sign that says “Every fake bill will be perforated” with a sample fake bill stuck on the window.
The institution is vigilant about fake bills. When a client pays their loan payment, their initials are marked on the bill and the cashier examines it to determine its authenticity. In the case it is deemed to be false, the bill is returned to its owner and the payment must be made again.
Here are some ways to tell the difference between real and fake bills in Bolivia from the cashier at the Emprender Pampahasi branch…
Continue Reading 26 February 2010 at 05:36 lethalsheethal 8 comments
A city bouncing back
On August 15th, 2007 Ica, Peru was hit with a major earthquake measuring at 8.0 on the Richter scale. The city was left in shambles. In the affected region, 519 people were killed, 1366 injured, and some 76,000 homes collapsed. After two and a half years, Ica is still very much recovering. Walk the streets and you can’t help but see the scars and occasional open wounds.
Cusco on My Mind
If you haven’t heard, there have been terrible floods in Cusco, Peru in the past week. Since we are in the thick of La Epoca de la Lluvia (the rainy season), rain is expected but the level of destruction seen in the area is unimaginable.
Tourism is the main industry in Cusco, and the damage produced by the rain does substantial damage on the Cusco economy. From the February 3rd warden message from the U.S. Embassy in Peru, I read that Machu Picchu is closed and the rail line between Ollantaytambo and Aguas Calientes is closed due to landslides until possibly March. I also read that tourists were stranded in Aguas Calientes (the town closest to Incan archeological site Machu Picchu) and that the conditions were excruciating. Luckily, helicopters eventually evacuated all the tourists from the town.
Unfortunately, my Kiva clients in Cusco don’t have that luxury.
A Fellow’s Five Favorite Posts (on Peru!)
The Fellows’ Blog is fast approaching its 1000th entry. With fresh updates posted multiple times daily, even the most dedicated readers can’t help but miss some real gems. With that in mind, I’d like to shine a light on some of the great work done by recent fellows in Peru. (more…)
Kiva Animal Kingdom
At microfinance institution Asociación Arariwa in Cusco, Peru, and now working with Emprender in La Paz, Bolivia, I have met a ton of animals. Being an animal lover and from New York where I rarely see live animals walking around (unless the occasional stray cat or rat or cockroach counts), seeing animals as part of my daily life is a pleasure.
Continue Reading 2 February 2010 at 06:07 lethalsheethal 6 comments
Financial Education and Microfinance
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
Doris, one of the loan officers at Asociación Arariwa, has been working with clients in Urubamba and Cusco for 17 years.
I sat in on one of the monthly loan payment meetings of one of her communal banks, Aguas Buenas. All members paid their monthly payments on time, but two of the members asked permission beforehand not to attend. Because of their absence, Doris commented on the importance of attending the monthly meetings, saying “No vamos a lograr nada” (We won’t achieve anything this way). She even called one of the absent members on her cellphone to remind them of the importance of attending monthly meetings.
Attendance is importance especially since during each meeting, loan officers teach a short workshop on different topics such as financial literacy, business training, family well-being or health. In this meeting Doris taught a lesson on setting financial goals. Having done some financial literacy workshops for teenagers and some credit counseling for adults in my work with the Lower East Side Credit Union in New York, I was excited and honored to see Arariwa’s financial literacy training in action, especially by a loan officer as experienced as Doris.
Behind the Scenes: How Kiva REALLY Works
By Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
As many Kiva supporters submitted entries to the Kiva Video Contest, I unfortunately was not able to upload my own version of “How Kiva Works” due to Internet issues in Peru. In order to not let the precious hours I spent go to waste, I have included below my attempt at describing how Kiva maintains their innovative model, particularly highlighting the role of the Field Partners, who perform an incredibly vital role in the Kiva cycle. Enjoy!
Josh Wilcox recently finished his KF9 placement with Caja Rural Señor de Luren in Ica, Peru and is beginning with Cooperativa San José in Chimbo, Ecuador as part of KF10. Become a part of the Kiva cycle by lending here and join the Caja Luren lending team!
Falso! A Musing on Fake Money in Peru
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
Counterfeit money is a very serious topic in Peru. There is so much false money floating around that it is extremely possible that at some point or another, you will try to buy some fruit from the woman selling fruit on the corner and she will return your bill or coin exclaiming, “falso!” (false!)
Peruvian MFI Asociación Arariwa’s 25th Anniversary Celebration
By Sheethal Shobowale, KF9, Peru
I had the pleasure of attending Asociación Arariwa’s 25th anniversary celebrations. In true Peruvian form, the celebrating lasted two weeks with lots of fanfare – a parade, music, dancing, eating and of course, Cusqueña (Peruvian beer) and sweet Peruvian wine.
The Future of Microfinance: A Brief Peek Inside the Brain of one MFI
By Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
While Kiva Fellows work diligently with their host microfinance institutions to implement the Kiva processes, verify borrowers, and write insightful journals on the impacts of the loans, it is easy to miss the other behind-the-scenes projects that microfinance organizations are crafting in their lair.
Those of us from the developed world often do not realize that we are not the only ones brainstorming and designing how microfinance will evolve, determining the most effective means to empower individuals in emerging nations to improve their standard of living.
A lack of movement
By Bryan Goldfinger, KF9, Peru
Throughout my “roaming” fellowship, I’ve had a lot of time to think; hours-long bus rides, walks, taxi trips, plane rides, time alone, time surrounded by others but when I felt alone, time spent just waiting, you get the idea. One theme that seems to consistently find its way into my thoughts is movement. (more…)
Kiva Update from PBS Frontline World
Suzy Marinkovich, KF8 Peru & KF9 Bolivia
One of the most exciting things about being a Kiva Fellow is the opportunity to tell the untold stories of those so remote, so rural, and so ignored by the media. When there are six billion humans sprinkled across the world, the media has the unenviable task of (more…)
A Quick Break in the Oasis of America
By Josh Wilcox, KF9 Peru
Taking a brief recess from borrower profiles and repayment schedules at Kiva’s MFI pilot partner Caja Rural one weekend in Ica, Peru, I escaped to visit the small town of Huacachina, the “oasis of America”, located just a few miles outside the sandy metropolitan hub of Ica. Having become famous for its natural lake enclosed by sand dunes, the tiny city of about 115 people has become an immensely popular tourist destination not only for its aesthetic appearance but also the sandboarding and dune buggies.
For those unfamiliar, sandboarding is very similar to snowboarding except, yep you guessed it, it is performed on sand. First popularized in California in the 1980s, there are now annual Sandboarding World Championships held in Hirschau, Germany. Who knew???
