Mar 5, 2013
Senegal
Some of you have may lend to women borrowers gathered in groups called "Village Bank", or "Banc Villageois" in French, the following is the story of this system in Senegal.
In 1984, in a plane going to La Paz, John Hatch outlined a project in which poor people gathered in a group were directly in charge of their financial service program. The main idea was to provide small loan to poorest families, especially women, for helping them to start small businesses. Such as what Grameen Bank was already doing in Bangladesh.
Village Banking has been designed to be a fully...
Mar 4, 2013
Zimbabwe
Pamhidzayi (Pamhi) Mhongera leads all new and existing projects at the MicroKing microfinance institution in Harare, Zimbabwe. As part of her role, she oversees the Kiva program under which Zimbabwean entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to work their way up the socioeconomic ladder.
Pamhi at the office where she oversees MicroKing’s Kiva partnership
However Pamhi’s positive impact on her community extends beyond her daily work. She and her husband, Mustafa, launched...
Mar 1, 2013
Kenya
Mary, far left, with the Sisal Sisters borrower group in Kakuyuni, near Tala, Kenya The second day I was in Kenya I had the good fortune to spend the day with KADET staff profiling the top loan officer at the agency, Mary Ngenya, who works in the Tala region. Mary is considered THE BEST of approximately 80 loan officers in the entire organization which has offices all over Kenya; she manages one of the largest loan portfolios in the organization and in the six years since she’s been with KADET, her portfolio has consistently had the fewest loans at risk...
Mar 1, 2013
Kenya
There is no shortage of articles documenting Africa’s position on the cusp of global development, with Kenya as a particular harbinger of those expectations. The Economist has reneged on writing off Africa as a “Hopeless Continent” several times since it featured the headline a decade ago. In 2011 it published “Africa Rising,” in which it identified 6 of the fastest growing countries in the world as African, with GDP growth surpassing East Asia. Last August, it dubbed Kenya Africa’s “Silicon Savannah,” bringing an onslaught of...
Feb 27, 2013
Azerbaijan
Dimitri Zakharov | KF20 | Azerbaijan
Something big is happening here – and you don’t know anything about it. As I explained in my last post, Azerbaijan has amassed great wealth due to its reserves of oil. It is the third largest oil producing country out of the CIS nations and the government oil fund, Sofaz, currently sits on $33.9 billion. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan took on a staggering initiative of modernization in order to shed its Soviet past and remake its own Azeri identity. The frontline of this metamorphosis is Baku...
Feb 27, 2013
Albania
Come with me on a journey to northern Albania, an area known for legendary hospitality, ancient citadels, and blood feuds. In many villages in the north the people are not governed by 21st century european law, but a law that is much older called the Kanun. The Kanun, or canon, is a 500-...
Feb 27, 2013
India
Last week I had the privilege of visiting Churachandpur, the second-largest city in the state of Manipur. Three borrower groups from the surrounding area were cycling out; that is, three groups were making their final repayments to WSDS and I was there to collect journal information for Kiva for the first time in India. It was a truly exciting, heartwarming, and awakening day for me, because it was a chance to see what these women have really been able to accomplish over the course of their six month loans.
So much of what we read and hear about the successes of microfinance can seem...
Feb 26, 2013
United States
MEET JESSIE GOLDENBERG: entrepreneur, New Yorker, and - as of today, Feb 25, 2013 - Kiva Zip’s 150th crowd-funded startup in the US.
Jessie is a smart, resourceful, double-shift working Brooklynite and NYU graduate. Her 6 month old business idea - turning a used 14-footer truck into a mobile fashion boutique that tours festivals, markets and college campuses called NOMAD - is already revenue-generating. So it begs the question: why did someone like Jessie...
Feb 25, 2013
Zimbabwe
Meet Henry Bartram,
A career private equity professional in London who, about a decade ago, gave up his suit and tie to manage the British Red Cross response in Aceh, Indonesia after the December 2004 tsunami.
Henry Bartram, Founder and Managing Director, with a colleague at Thrive Microfinance
This experience led him to more social impact opportunities and ultimately to him becoming a Kiva Fellow. Henry was a member a KF15 and KF16, serving in Liberia and...
Feb 24, 2013
Tanzania
Marion Walls | KF19 | Tanzania
I’m on a quest to follow a Kiva loan from lender to borrower! How often have I dreamed of this whilst browsing my loans on a frosty winter weekend in Canada? Now I have an ideal opportunity to do so as the Kiva Fellow in Tanzania, so I’ll take you along for the ride!
My directions are set when a friend emails from Calgary: “I donated to the Jaguar Group. They’re asking for a loan in support of their beauty salon. I chose that one in honor of you – I figure you might want a haircut or a color...