The road going over the pass has drops down the side in which one can see the bodies of former semis, trucks, and cars which slid down the side of the road. The second time I took the road my driver told me, “That always happens in winter, but how else are you going to get goods from one place to another.” The main road linking Dushanbe (the capital) and Khujand (the second largest city) is interesting to say the least. Going over 9,000 feet at one point, and with parts of the road being dirt, or when it rains mud, this is the only internal artery that connects the two main...
Continue Reading >>Stories tagged with MLF MicroInvest-Tajikistan
I remember it was my first day in Khujand, in northern Tajikistan, when I first heard there were 100 or more microfinance organizations in Tajikistan. I was slightly shocked. Clearly this was some mistake. The next day, I found out it wasn’t.
There are many small and medium MFI’s (Microfinance Institutions) in Tajikistan, around 90, and there are also a few large ones, and a few banks as well. The most interesting aspect to me is that there are so many that even the AMFOT- Association of Micro-Finance Organizations of Tajikistan, doesn’t have exact numbers of the amount of MFI’s in...
Continue Reading >>If you look up Tajikistan on Kiva you can find some loans for 50$ and 75$, but you also can find 4,000$ loans. On average farming vegetables and fruit loans are between 125$-900$ (there are those that are over, but the good portion lie within this range). These loans are small compared to the rest of the loans from Tajikistan, but they have monumental impact.
If you read any of the economic stats on Tajikistan a few things jump out at you. Number one) they do not export a lot and number two) the area in which to make these commodities are few and far between. The list of exports are...
Continue Reading >>I recently began work at MDO Arvand, formerly MicroInvest. Arvand, which will soon return to the Kiva website, is currently growing and expanding its client base in Northern Tajikistan. It has created an interesting way to explain Microfinance to its clients, but also to its clients children. Using a Tajik Fairy Tale it has written a small book that it hands out to its clients titled “The Stork and the Golden Grain”. The stork is the bird of good luck in this part of the world.
Continue Reading >>It’s 5am and the electricity has just come back on here in my Khujand apartment. I know because the sheet metal of the ‘70’s era space heater plugged into the wall has started to creak and crack as it warms. I’m not typically up at this hour but it’s D-day – my departure – and I’m anxious to get started on the 3 day, 5 country journey back home. Today Tajikistan to Uzbekistan, tomorrow Uzbekistan to Moscow to Amsterdam, and finally Amsterdam to… America.
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Continue Reading >>It was a typical Sunday in Khujand. I slept late until 9am and wandered out for some breakfast and tea. I haven’t quite mastered the art of making instant coffee (ground coffee is non-existent) so I just don’t bother. I’ve had it in restaurants and with the right mix of crystals, sugar and water it’s not bad. A few minutes later the power clicked off. The daughter of the family I’m staying with said what I was pretty much thinking – “just another typical weekend in Tajikistan.”...
Continue Reading >>Having researched Tajikistan’s economy prior to arriving here, I had a difficult time reconciling the numbers. It has a literacy rate of 95% and fairly high costs of goods like a developed country yet exceptionally low per capita incomes of some $340 similar to those of the poorest in the world. How does an educated population earn so little yet pay for goods clearly beyond its reach?
It is the Soviet legacy which has left most of the population over the age of 30 with a reasonably good education. Mothers and fathers subsisted on moderate civil servant salaries at the...
Continue Reading >>I’ve been immersed in the mission this week – San Francisco’s Mission district. Block after colorful block surrounds Kiva’s office at 18th and Folsom where we’ve been gathered just prior to our departures throughout the world. And while you can find virtually any type of cuisine in the area – from Salvadoran to Vietnamese to Senegalese – it’s really all about the burritos. Last night’s sampling was a bulging toasty tortilla jammed with spicy al pastor courtesy of El Farolito on 24th and Mission. Taqueria Cancun is just a short 5...
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“Hello Daniel. How are you? I remember you said that you were willing to help some of my students out with their English lessons and…well, I have a nephew whom I would like you to meet.”
It was 9am on Monday morning. I was drinking Nescafe and checking email, when the MicroInvest English teacher came in to see if I was still willing to fulfill the pledge that I had made the day before to give some of the...
Continue Reading >>1. Tajiki-what?: Being an American in Tajikistan means that you are in a country that few of your compatriots have ever heard of, let alone traveled to. You are a curiosity everywhere you go and the lack of Westerners gives you the opportunity to act as kind of a mini-ambassador, answering all of questions that Tajiks have been waiting, sometimes their whole lives, to ask an American. Especially in the small towns...
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