Feb 15, 2013
Azerbaijan
Dimitri Zakharov | KF20 | Azerbaijan
It’s been 2 weeks since my arrival in Azerbaijan for my Kiva Fellowship and every day I grow more confused.
Serving in Azerbaijan is a very different experience from the typical Kiva Fellow placement. The scenes here of the capital, Baku, aren’t the stereotypical poverty we envision in Africa or south Asia. By World Bank figures, Azerbaijan is wealthier than more than 54% of the world’s countries; amongst Kiva’s portfolio countries (which include the U.S., Israel, and Mexico) it ranks 8th by GDP...
Feb 14, 2013
Kenya
Six people, picked to be Kiva fellows. NOT picked to all live in the same house. But doing it anyways because apparently it’s harder than one thinks to find a four bedroom apartment in Nairobi!
Nairobi is overrun with Kiva fellows. Lucky for us, Katrina, who has extended from KF19, has been kind enough to let us crash with her and her new roommate Rachel, also from KF19. We have overrun their house - Felipe on the couch, Amy and Katrina in twin...
Feb 14, 2013
India
Yesterday I took my first trip to a branch office of WSDS to help the Loan Officers do interviews for borrower profiles. As my Kiva Coordinator and I left the city of Imphal in his mini station wagon, I watched the road turn from well-paved, to potholed, to dirt over the course of thirty minutes. I watched our terrain change from flat, dusty valley to lush green mountains, and I watched the buildings turn from crowded city dwellings to sparse shacks. While out in one of the villages, Andro, we stopped to visit one of the Kiva clients, who makes “wine.” Isn’t it interesting...
Feb 12, 2013
Rwanda
Kigali is in the mountains. Way up in the mountains. As high as Denver, Colorado even. But without any of the flat plains - except for the slim valleys snaking between the hills where there aren’t any houses presumably because of the looming threat of flooding.
Car engines roar as they try to make it up some of the hills. Only the most skilled manual transmission drivers can make it 50 Kigali-miles without stalling out. Even automatic transmission cars tend to stall on hills like these. At first, I wondered to myself why this was chosen as...
Feb 6, 2013
Colombia, Honduras, United States
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By Rose Larsen, KF19 Colombia, with excerpts provided by Wesley Schrock, KF19 Honduras, and Luan Nio, KF18 Nicaragua/KF19 United States
Loan officers are the hidden heroes behind the Kiva model.
Lenders, borrowers, Kiva staff and Kiva fellows all show their beautiful faces somewhere on Kiva.org, and while Kiva’s field partners have profiles of their own, there is little explanation or clarity behind who actually, physically, goes to the clients’ businesses, evaluates their requests, delivers loans and picks up repayments (hint: it’s loan officers!)....
Feb 5, 2013
Rwanda
On the plane to Kigali for my Kiva Fellowship at Urwego Opportunity International, I realise that my knowledge of Rwanda, the country of a thousand hills, is limited to the famous mountain gorillas and the tragic history of genocide in 1994. I have little idea of what the people and the country will be like. Wary of the fact that everyone over 19 years old must have a significant story, I approach the city and its people with cautious optimism. I should not have been worried. Everywhere I go, gracious, smiling and incredibly polite people greet me. With a combination of...
Jan 31, 2013
Guatemala, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan
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By Kiva Fellows | KF19 | All Over the World
With January 2013 coming to an end, KF19 fellows are either continuing on with KF20 or returning home to various responsibilities and careers. Regardless of the next adventure or destination, one thing is common among all: KF19 fellows have been permanently changed by their placements.
What began as a joint blog post about any person, place, or event during the course of the fellowship that affected our lives, of itself turned into simply the one person who left the most impact. Afterall,...
Jan 30, 2013
Kenya
Why should you fund a Kick Trading loan?
Kick trading, Kisumu Innovation Centre Kenya, was one of our favourite groups because the borrowers were enthusiastic and their workspace was bright. We entered to see some artisans painting, others selling items in the colourful stalls, as we ducked under hundred of mini wire bicycles and Santa Clauses in the outdoor workspace.
Kick trading provides training opportunities to young artisans and allows them to earn a fair wage. They are encouraged to be creative by hand making products using hyacinth and papyrus from Lake Victoria....
Jan 27, 2013
United States
For the past four months, I have been serving as a Kiva Zip Fellow in Denver, Colorado. As a fellow in the US I was required to work independently without the comfort of a home office or co-workers. The Zip fellowship is in and of itself, very entrepreneurial. First came research, then networking, then meetings, then events, then more networking. I’ve met so many fascinating people and have come to know so many amazing organizations doing crucial work in my own backyard.
The work of one organization in particular has really resonated with me...
Jan 22, 2013
Colombia
Rose Larsen | KF19 | Colombia
After traveling for almost a month over Christmas holidays, I was struggling to figure out why I was so happy to be back “home” in Barranquilla, the hot, humid, chaotic city on the Caribbean coast of Colombia that I’ve been living in for the past 4 months. I had just visited places of incredible beauty like:
Montezuma, Costa Rica
Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua
and Medellin, Colombia.
But as much fun as I had, none of these places measured up.
Then I read the news and everything made sense.
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