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...
Continue Reading >>Stories tagged with Peru
Nov 11, 2010
Peru
Peru
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.
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If you feel...
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Nov 11, 2010
Peru
Peru
Introduction: Edpyme Alternativa (EA), the microfinance institution with which I currently work, offers a reduced interest rate product that is funded by Kiva lenders. Edpyme Alternativa (EA) is using the product to reach unbanked or underbanked communities. Because the capital that you, the lender, provides to EA is interest free and low risk, EA is able to take greater risks on local borrowers and provide them with a more affordable product. In my opinion this is a beautiful use of the Kiva funding and one that I expect will take on a larger share of Kiva’s lending activity as...
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Oct 10, 2010
Peru
Peru
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.
It came as quite a shock to me, after having spent time in Lima (the capital) and Puno (in the Andes region), where...
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Sep 9, 2010
Peru
Peru
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...
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Sep 9, 2010
Peru
Peru
Introduction:
Below I provide a lens and a context for a conversation. I then provide a specific observation. I have multiple observations which I will present over a series of days. Hopefully this will permit you to read the whole post and also leave comments. Any and all comments, expecially personal experiences and other observations, would be much appreciated.
Lens:
Before leaving for Peru I attempted to obtain information about the cost and duration of a bus trip from Lima (the capital city) to Chiclayo where I would be completing my fellowship. Either as a...
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Sep 9, 2010
Peru
Peru
Introduction:
Below I provide a lens and a context for a conversation. I then provide a specific observation. I have multiple observations which I will present over a series of days. Hopefully this will permit you to read the whole post and also leave comments. Any and all comments, expecially personal experiences and other observations, would be much appreciated.
Lens:
Before leaving for Peru I attempted to obtain information about the cost and duration of a bus trip from Lima (the capital city) to Chiclayo where I would be completing my fellowship. Either as a...
Continue Reading >>
Sep 9, 2010
Peru
Peru
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...
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Aug 8, 2010
Peru
Peru
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.
Despite the criminalization of discrimination in 2000, women in Peru still face discrimination in...
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Aug 8, 2010
Peru
Peru
By Julie Shea, KF12
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...
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