“You can see the self esteem and dignity that they gain,” Shadrack says. Shadrack is a program manager at Hand in Hand Eastern Africa, a Kiva field partner in Kenya. He is describing the impact that Hand in Hand's youth entrepreneurship clubs have on their student participants. Outside of these entrepreneurship clubs, Hand in Hand Eastern Africa partners with clients who undergo an intensive 9-month...
Continue Reading >>
Lana is a Bay Area native who briefly lived in Los Angeles for university. While she attended USC, she studied international relations, watched too many football games, and spent a summer in Geneva interning at an NGO working with the UN. After school she moved to San Francisco and spent the last five years working in the tech industry, most recently at Airbnb. This past year she left Airbnb and spent four months traveling in Europe before coming back to California to pursue a career in international development. Lana has been lending on Kiva for 10 years, and she’s excited to work with Kiva partners this coming year in Tanzania and Kenya. When she’s not trying to learn Swahili for her time in Africa, she can be found baking, cheering on the Warriors, and volunteering at the SPCA.
Fellows Blog Posts by Lana Yarkin


Mambo from Dar es Salaam! Full disclosure: This post is not about the actual mayor of Dar es Salaam, but rather a Kiva borrower named Samweli whom I had the pleasure of meeting, and the story behind his nickname, the “Mayor of Dar es Salaam.” I’m here working with the Kiva field partner Tujijenge. Last week, I double-checked that I had all of my notes, pens and everything else I needed for the day, and I went out into the field for my second borrower verification. I set off with Maria, the wonderful Kiva Coordinator at Tujijenge, to board a sweltering bus towards...
Continue Reading >>