Fellows Blog

Stories from the field

Stories tagged with Africa

Oct 10, 2018 NG Nigeria
Kiva borrower Linda became a Babban Gona farmer several years after her husband joined and their family started to prosper

Blessed with fertile soil and a favorable climate, northern Nigeria is considered the “breadbasket” of the country. However, low mechanization and sparse infrastructure isolate this region from the bustling economy of Lagos, which is just 1,000 km to the south. Insecurity in the northeast heightens the divide where, since 2009, over 20,000 lives have been lost and over 2 million...

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Aug 8, 2017 EG Egypt

I had the privilege of being Kiva’s first fellow to work with Together Association for Development and Environment (TADE), our only partner in Egypt. TADE is based in the Minya governate, known locally as the “Bride of Upper Egypt.” 

Minya's Nile corniche, the longest in all of Egypt


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Sep 9, 2016 GO Global Update
2016 can officially be crowned the Year of Nostalgia.

The evidence is clear. This year, 20 years after opening their first case, Scully and Mulder have returned to help us answer the age old question- “Aliens or nah?”. Blink 182 transported us back to the years of our teenage angst with their new album that debuted at number one. And let’s not forget, Clinton is running for president… What year is it again?
 
Yet, the ‘90s movement that took the cake this year has to be Pokémon Go. Pokémon has swept the nation--no, the world-- with its new mobile game. As Kiva... Continue Reading >>
Sep 9, 2015 ZW Zimbabwe
A conversation with Angeline Murimirwa, Regional Director of Camfed
 
Angie Murimirwa is the Regional Director for Camfed, covering the whole of the Africa region.  As part of her high profile role, she has recently returned from a trip to Washington to join a panel with Michelle Obama, on the role of young women in the education of girls.  But Angie’s story could easily have been very different.  Her family (in rural Zimbabwe) did not have the money to pay secondary school fees. Fortunately, her case came to the attention of Camfed, who... Continue Reading >>
Apr 4, 2015 ZW Zimbabwe
By far the most rewarding aspect of my Kiva Fellowship here in Zimbabwe, is the opportunity to meet individual Kiva borrowers and to understand from them, first hand, how they are using their loans to transform their lives. Sometimes, however, those accounts can be painful to hear.

Patience lives in the Gokwe district, in the north west of the country. I was slightly concerned about the trip to Gokwe: anyone I mentioned it to gave me a look of sympathy, mixed with a certain glee, at the prospect of the journey I was in for. I now know why. It’s a vast district, remote and quite... Continue Reading >>
Nov 11, 2014 KE Kenya
For my Kiva Fellowship I was very lucky to have been placed with One Acre Fund, one of Kiva’s Field Partners in Kenya. I have been in this beautiful country serving as a Fellow for a month and a half, learning about microfinance and its impact at a local level and... I think it’s time for an update!

About One Acre Fund

One Acre Fund is a non-profit organization that supplies smallholder farmers with the tools and financing they need to grow their way out of hunger...
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Sep 9, 2014 KE Kenya


My first boda experience in Kenya occurred on a wet morning, in the pitch-black darkness that is the 5 o'clock hour, on uneven dirt roads winding through the rural farmland of Isibania, Kenya.  I was wearing the broken helmet of a former Kiva Fellow who had been in a motorcycle accident in exactly these conditions.



 
The beauty of being a person afflicted with many fears is that is doesn’t take much to experience an adrenaline rush.  In this situation, I might as well have been free climbing Mt. Kenya for the amount of dopamine... Continue Reading >>
Apr 4, 2014 GO Global Update
Paynesville south - suburb of Monrovia, Liberia

I have just realized that my definition of poverty has evolved over the past 6 months as I have gotten to know my host countries and have met with various people in different communities. Poverty is not always the lack of resources to enjoy a minimum standard of life and well-being, provided that how one assesses that is anything but straightforward. Sometimes, it’s also the unwillingness to take advantages of opportunities that could improve one’s life conditions... Continue Reading >>
Mar 3, 2014 ZW Zimbabwe

 

Wedza District - Zimbabwe
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Mar 3, 2014 BF Burkina Faso

Maboudou, 27, was one of the first graduate students to fund his studies with Micro Start through a Kiva loan of $4,250


I’m currently working with the partner Micro Start, a microfinance institution based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. They are one of the few in West Africa offering a loan product to college students. Since 2012, they have been piloting this product with a graduate school of public works based in Ouagadougou. So how does this work? The school identifies high-achieving, responsible... Continue Reading >>

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