Albania has a gigantic, generous heart, and I found it last weekend in the country’s beautiful north. I was invited by Ester, a co-worker from Agro & Social Fund (the Field Partner I currently work with), to spend the weekend with her at home. “Home,” it turned out, was a small village called Klos outside of Burrel that could be reached from Tirana only after winding through mountainous terrain on some of the bumpiest roads I’ve ever encountered. There were no lights for long stretches, which made for incredible stargazing, but dangerous driving conditions. Luckily, Ester’s fiancé,...
Continue Reading >>While she’s a Midwestern girl at heart, Jessica has lived, worked, and traveled all over the world. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she spent a year as an English teacher in Chile before returning to the U.S. to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania. During law school she worked at a human rights law firm in Namibia, focusing on women’s and children’s rights, and was involved with many pro bono projects that allowed her to champion reproductive rights and support reproductive health care facilities, advocate against gender-based exploitation, and teach legal education classes to prisoners in detention facilities. Jessica practiced as a corporate and securities attorney at a large law firm in New York City and London for several years, where she continued to provide pro bono counsel to impact investment funds, victims of domestic violence or persecution in immigration petitions, and non-profit organizations focused on education. She is excited to serve as a Kiva Fellow in Tajikistan and Armenia. She is looking forward to learning more about microfinance and exploring how she can combine her corporate and public interest background to make a meaningful impact.
Fellows Blog Posts by Jessica Sun
Jan 16, 2018
Armenia
Normally, when I go on borrower verification visits I am accompanied by someone from the Field Partner office, both to serve as a translator and (I suspect) to ensure I don’t get lost forever somewhere out there. This story began with an unchaperoned borrower verification trip and ended up with a deep dive into the exciting social enterprise scene in Armenia. The last client I had to visit from my borrower verification list for Nor Horizon, one of the Armenian Field Partners I am working with, was also the client located farthest away in Kapan, a city approximately 7 hours south of...
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