Kiva Blog

What's it really like to have a small candle-making or weaving workshop in Guatemala? Now you can get a closer look...

Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll are two world travelers documenting their journey through The Americas on their website Uncornered Market. On the way they have been volunteering with Kiva's media program, meeting with and capturing images of Kiva Entrepreneurs to help tell their stories.

Earlier this year Audrey and Daniel visited Juan and Magda, two microloan recipients in Guatemala, who allowed them to tour their workspaces for their weaving and candle-making businesses. Audrey and Daniel have put together some amazing panoramic pictures, check it out:



A Kiva Borrower Starts a Home Weaving Business in Guatemala in North America


A Kiva Borrower Expands Her Family Business in Guatemala in North America

To many in the world, Nepal is a distant and enchanting place. A small nation of 28 million people, it is surrounded by two giants with China to the north and India to the south. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s highest mountains including Mount Everest, known locally as Sagarmāthā, which have been attracting travellers and explorers for hundreds of years.

The Nepalese people mostly practise a mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism and the countryside and sky high mountains are dotted with the colourful Tibetan prayer flags that float freely in the cool Himalayan breeze (such as those in the picture at left, above Kathmandu Valley). At any given moment, walking down a pathway though a town or village in Nepal, the low and soothing chant of monks can be heard in unison with the prayer bells rung by worshippers.

In spite of Nepal’s rugged beauty, high peaks and spiritual vibrance that draw in travellers from afar, the country is also home to some of the world’s most impoverished people. Almost half of Nepalese children under the age of five are malnourished, a higher proportion than in countries commonly associated with famine, such as Sudan and Ethiopia. Child mortality and maternal mortality are also on par with some of the most impoverished African countries, one in ten people still don’t have access to clean water and the life expectancy is lower in Nepal than anywhere else in Asia.

In the midst of this, one Kiva borrower has managed to overcome the confines of poverty and emerge as a successful and proud business women.

Five years ago Gun (the "u" in "Gun" is like "full") Keshari Maharjan (picture at left) wandered the footpaths of the Kathmandu Valley, working as a street hawker. Street hawkers are common in Nepal and typically sell fruit or household items at a small markup. This is one of the lowest paying types of employment in Nepal.

Gun Keshari sold a small collection of household items, such as kitchen utensils, that she would push down the street in a small cart. Gun Keshari’s husband, Shibadas Maharjan (picture at right), was working for a very small wage in the handicraft industry where he was making religious idols. At that point in her life, Gun and Shibadas didn’t even have enough money to feed corn or rice to their family, the cheapest foods in Nepal, which would have cost just a few rupees each day (equivelant to about one US quarter).

In 2005, Gun Keshari heard through a number of women in her community about an organization called Patan Business and Professional Women (BPW Patan). This organization was lending an initial amount of $150 to women in the Kathmanu Valley area. Gun had an idea to stop selling kitchen items from a cart on the street and to open a grocery store in the village of Thecho.

Thecho is a village that is home to a large community of Newar people, including Gun Keshari and her family. The Newar people are the indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley and have a culture that is quite distinct to the typical Nepali culture. The Newar language doesn’t have any overlap with the Nepali language and, for some of the poorer Newar people, they may not have ever learned to speak Nepali. Newar food is also different than typical Nepali food; while many Nepali people are vegetarians, meat is an important part of the Newar diet (in particular buffalo meat). The architecture, dances and festivals of the Newar community also add a lot of flavor to the Kathmandu Valley and are appreciated by many foreign tourists.

Having grown up in the Newar community in Thecho, Gun Keshari was well aware of the types of food and goods that would sell easily to members in her community. When she was approved for a loan, and as she set up her shop, she made sure she had large supplies of maize, rice, lentils and spices that go well with buffalo meat. She also resourced some women in the community who could supply her with milk and eggs in the mornings so she could sell the freshest produce to her customers. Gun Keshari also realized there was a market for selling sweets and chocolate to children, as they pass by her shop every morning and night to get to and from the nearby school. On her front counter, Gun Keshari displayed a colourful assortment of plastic bins containing many different types of treats for children.

Within the first year of business, Gun Keshari was experiencing unforeseeable success in her grocery store. Sales had exceeded her expectations and she found herself with profits she could invest. As a Maharjan, Gun Keshari and her husband belong to a caste that is renowned for their farming skills and hard working ethic. With a knowledge of farming that has been passed down through the generations, Gun Keshari decided to invest her profit into what she knew, and she rented two small plots of land in front of and behind her grocery store. On these plots of land, her husband began planting vegetable seedlings and fruit trees.

When her first loan was repaid, Gun took out a second loan with BPW Patan, for $450. This loan was funded by 18 Kiva Lenders from the United States, Canada and Luxembourg. While $450 is a nominal amount of money for many people, for a woman in Nepal, this loan amount is approximately half the average annual income. With this much money in her possession, Gun Keshari wanted to ensure she invested it wisely. She divided this money between new stock for her grocery store and fertilizer for her vegetable and fruit farm.

After just a few months of hard labour on the land and many sales in the grocery store, Gun Keshari and her husband saw their profits rise considerably. They were able to achieve what had been unimaginable just a short time ago; they were able to take their son out of his public school education and enrol him in a private school.

Soon Gun Keshari and her husband found they were growing more vegetables and fruit on their land than they could possibly sell in their small grocery store. They needed to make their produce available to a wider market. Rather than simply selling their produce to a local supplier, as most Nepali farmers tend to do, Gun Keshari cut out the middle man and took matters into her own hands.

Everyday at 5:00am, Gun Keshari wakes, prepares breakfast for her family and collects her fruit and vegetable produce and at 5:30am she boards a microbus and travels into the heart of Patan; one of the three major cities in the Kathmandu Valley. Here, she sells her vegetables and fruit, along with eggs and spices from her grocery store at a busy morning market. The profit she is able to make from this is much more than what she could ever make if she sold to a supplier.

On the 15th of July this year, Gun Keshari repaid her first Kiva loan. The very same day she took out her second Kiva loan, this time for $400. This loan was funded by 16 Kiva Lenders from 10 countries around the world: the United States, Sweden, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and France. Gun Keshari intends to use this new loan to continue to expand the types of stock in her grocery store and also to buy new fertilisers for her vegetable and fruit farm.

The changes that have occurred in Gun Keshari’s life over the space of just a few years and three loans have been remarkable, but have not been without hard work. Gun’s husband is very busy doing all of the farming himself and so Gun Keshari must juggle selling the vegetables while also running her grocery store. When I asked about vacation days, the concept was completely foreign and she said she never takes a day off unless there is a festival that closes the whole city down and, even then, she still works for a few hours in the morning selling her produce at the market.

Despite the difficulties of working so hard, the benefits are clear to see. Gun is now able to provide her family with nutritious food and her son is receiving a good quality education. When I asked her what her dreams are, Gun giggled and said she would like her son to go to university overseas and be able to become whatever he wants. She said she still finds it funny that this is even a possibility since only a few years ago she couldn't find a way to feed her family a nutritious meal.

I have visited Gun Keshari on a number of occasions now, and each time she insists on giving me fruit from her orchard and cannot stop laughing and smiling throughout our conversations. On my last visit I asked her what the value of a loan meant to her. She grinned from ear to ear and said, “Money is not everything but it is a very special thing which has changed my life”.


- Polly Banks is a Kiva Fellow, and has been working with Patan Business and Professional Women since May 2009.

Traveling with a microfinance institution in rural Tanzania, I once spent 45 minutes in an SUV getting to their "closest" rural client. Rural Africa can get pretty sparsely populated making it difficult for loan officers to access clients or for clients to access an MFI office without incurring significant costs. Higher costs make it harder for microfinance institutions to serve the rural poor or drive up interest rates to keep institutions sustainable.

What if clients could make payments on loans through their phones? That's what two Kiva partners, Tujijenge in Tanzania and the Small and Micro Enterprise Program (SMEP) in Kenya, are experimenting with. These mobile banking projects are being supported by Triple Jump Advisory Services, a technical assistance provider based in the Netherlands, and discussed here.

Cell phones are ubiquitous throughout Africa and present a unique opportunity to leverage technology to improve services to microfinance clients. Let's hope that Tujijenge and SMEP prove successful with these projects and that the continue to spread!

Dear Kiva Lenders --

PDS Extraordinaire Rico Munoz recently put together this map that shows all of Kiva's partners in the Philippines and where Kiva loans are having an effect. As you can see, your generous support is helping microentrepreneurs all across this wonderful country. So once again, on behalf of our Filipino partners, Rico & myself, thank you again for your dedication to helping make Kiva so successful in the Philippines

Happy lending!!

Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific

Rico Munoz
Partnership Development Specialist - Asia Pacific

Kiva Fellow Sarah Forbes recently facilitated a shoot in Tanzaniza for a BBC documentary series that includes Kiva. The shoot involved interviews with Kiva Entrepreneurs at Tujijenge. She wrote about her experience:

You can never quite be sure what requests you might receive as a Kiva Fellow, and the call I received from Kiva's Public Relations Director, Fiona Ramsey, was one of theose unexpected requests. She let me know that the BBC was putting together a television series on social enterprise, that one of the episodes will focus on Kiva, and that a BBC Rockhopper Production Team would be coming to Tanzania to film some Kiva Borrowers from our Field Partner Tujijenge. As a Kiva Fellow in Tanzania, I was in a position to help facilitate the filming.

In order to tell the complete story of Kiva, a BBC Rockhopper production team (consisting of Rebecca Stewart and Kim Dawson) and the series host (Alvin Hall) arrived in Tanzania after several long flights, ready to roll the next morning. Their time in Dar es Salaam was limited, as they had an appointment the next day to film giant rats. Yes, that’s right, giant rats. Kiva is in great company for this series on social enterprise, alongside the fascinating organization of Apopo, which breeds and trains giant rats to sniff out tuberculosis in blood samples as well as to track down landmines in Mozambique.

Since we would only have one day to get the film of Alvin Hall interviewing Kiva borrowers completed, and had to compete with giant, TB-sniffing rats, I was a bit nervous, especially since I only had 3 days in which to organize where they would be shooting and whom.

I shouldn’t have been nervous, though, since, luckily, Tujijenge has Rita as a Kiva Coordinator. Rita was indispensable to the work done both in preparation and in actual filming, helping to organize interviews so that we could identify potential stories, wandering with me down dark, muddy alleys in the rain in search of borrowers’ business locations, and acting as translator both during phone calls to borrowers and, when two other translators backed out, during the filming itself. This project simply would not have happened without her. Nor would Kiva be able to function without her and the other Field Partner staff like her all around the world.

The borrowers focused on in the episode are Neema Abdallah and Atuna Issa, two incredible women whose stories of entrepreneurship will be able to hold their own against those of even the most talented giant rat nostrils. Neema is a divorcee, mother of three, and on her second loan from Tujijenge. We met with her for filming at her second business, the pharmacy she opened using capital from her first Tujijenge/Kiva loan and has been able to expand with the funds from her second loan. She now not only has two businesses to support herself, but is also able to provide an employment opportunity for another.

Atuna is a single mother of one daughter and has been able, using the loan from Tujijenge/Kiva to change from a business of selling illegal home brewed alcohol to frying and selling breakfast cassava. She showed us how she is slowly expanding her business with the cooler that she purchased and stocked with cold drinks using loan money. Atuna told us that she feels relieved to have changed to a more stable business and is happy to be able to provide education for her daughter with her profits.

The actual shooting of footage turned out to be much more low key than I had imagined. Some people gathered around to find out who we were and why we were there with a big camera and a big, bushy microphone (some good, if somewhat bizarre, neighborhood publicity for Tujijenge), but other than needing to ask for some radios to be turned down, the filming went off without a hitch. In no time at all, it seemed, the BBC Rockhopper Team were on the road.

They returned again the next week, sans host Alvin, to get some additional footage of Atuna setting up her business in the early hours and of Neema attending her weekly borrower group meeting. Winnie Terry, the manager of Tujijenge, also provided a look at Kiva operations from the field partner’s point of view. Combined with footage shot at Kiva Headquarters in San Francisco, the BBC episode will enable viewers to see the complete picture of how Kiva loans get to borrowers, examples of how they affect borrowers’ lives, how the money gets back to lenders, and what, in short, all of this really means for everyone involved.

A few months from now, the BBC Rockhopper production team will return to Tanzania, to meet again with Neema and Atuna, and to find out how they and their businesses are faring. Have the loans had a positive impact on how they do business? On how the women lead their lives? The series (as yet unnamed) is due to air sometime in the spring of 2010, so keep on the lookout for it to find out!"

You can read the Rockhopper Production Blog for the BBC Social Enterpreneurship series here.

Dear Lenders --

With the signing of Kiva's 8th partner in the Philippines, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for making our expansion into the country possible. In the past 9 months since the first Filipino loan was posted to Kiva, you all have lent over $1 million USD to support Filipino microentrepreneurs. It is because of your support that Kiva has been able to expand so quickly in the country to support the working poor. On behalf of our Filipino partners & Team Asia, please accept our sincerest thanks for all your support!

At the same time, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the main drivers for this incredible growth in the Philippines from the Kiva side: Rico Munoz (official title: PDS Extraordinaire) and the team of past & current Fellows who worked/are working incredibly hard with the Filipino MFIs to get set-up on Kiva. Given that almost a year ago, Kiva did not have any partners in the Philippines and was only beginning its entry into the Philippines, it is a testament to these individuals that we now have 8 strong Filipino partners (5 whom are Active partners!) who collectively have raised over $1MM on Kiva in this short period of time.

Specifically, Rico has been absolutely amazing in identifying, researching & training all of the Filipino partners. He not only has built a strong rapport with the organizations we currently are working with, but he also ensured that they responded to all of our requests in a timely fashion which was instrumental in expanding in the country so quickly. And as the Filipino loan & journal postings have demonstrated, Rico has done an exceptional job in helping the MFIs understand how to operationalize Kiva and making sure they have the necessary tools & training to be excellent Kiva partners.

And what more can I say about the team of Fellows I have worked with in the Philippines? Not only do they have to put up working with me, but they have the hard part of actually making sure everything Rico & I train the MFIs on actually sticks. From traveling to remote branch offices to train credit officers on Kiva to posting business profiles/journal updates to helping an MFI develop a Kiva Implementation Manual to completing Borrower Verifications, my Fellows have done it all and done it exceptionally well. Without them, it is unlikely that many of our partners would have been able to post so many loans in such a short amount a time nor would the 5 Active partners have become Active partners so quickly. More importantly, all of the MFIs who have received a Fellow absolutely LOVE them & have repeatedly thanked me for sending them such great individuals.

And since I am the author of this email, I’d like to single out the Filipino members of Team Awesome:

1. ASHI – John Briggs (KF7), Sloane Berrent (KF8)
2. ASKI - Teresa Dunbar (KF7), Drew Loizeaux (KF8)
3. CCT – Merrick Brown (KF8)
4. CEVI – Rob Cavese (KF7), Milena Arciszewski (KF8)
5. PMPC – Evie Marzec (KF7)

Also, huge thanks to the hard-working Fellows Team of JD, Zack & their army of volunteers for finding & training such a great group of Fellows for the Philippines!

Anyways, since this post is getting ridiculously long, I think I’ll end it here. I know that I’ve left out others who have been instrumental in helping Team Asia get the Philippines off the ground (Editing/Translations dealing with suddenly urgent requests to edit Filipino loans, the Investment Committee, etc.) but please know that we greatly appreciate all the help you have provided to us.

So here’s to everyone that have made the Philippines a roaring success and hopefully we will duplicate this type of growth in Indonesia and beyond!

Sincerely,

Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific

"Business success is often a mystery. Very often, luck is a big part of it. Often it's skill. Sometimes it's just plain sweat and perseverance. Micro-entrepreneurs are no different, and while we can sometimes guess at why one entrepreneur can be so successful as to expand their business and hire employees whereas others do not, often, it's simply a mystery.

When I first met Adora Fajiculay I'd I'd invited myself into her workspace after seeing the most fantastic gown on display there. I learned she made the dress from pandan palm, for a beauty contestant to wear at the annual Banigan Festival. The gown was not only beautiful to look at, but structurally flawless. If there were a "Project Runway: Philippines", Adora would win, hands down.

I went wild with praise as she stood by not quite sure what to make of all of it. At first meeting, Adora can be perceived as shy. She is petite and soft-spoken, and always gracious and welcoming.

Adora was the first Filipina borrower that you had the chance to meet on Kiva. She was the first borrower posted by any Philippine MFI to Kiva, winning her the distinction of being the first Philippine entrepreneur on the site.

Adora's business success is clear. Her two-room workshop hums, and is so busy that she has had to hire help; she now employs two women, and is planning to hire a third worker to staff a new uniform showroom she intends to open across from a local university. But she didn't arrive here from a path destined to succeed.

Adora comes from a large family, and due to challenges at home, was raised by her aunt. She got her first taste of intensive sewing in a home economics course when she was a third-year high school student. After finishing high school in 1997, Adora began looking for a way to earn money to help pay for medical bills for her father, who was suffering from a terminal illness. She left her home in Antique Province, where fishing and farming are the economic mainstays and wages are low, to work at a garment factory in Bulacan, northwest of Manila. Adora worked there for three years, sending home most of her earnings.

When her father's condition failed to improve, Adora decided to return home. She was determined to go to university or college. Adora examined the opportunities available to her, and chose to apply for a Philippine government scholarship program run by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. She was accepted, and was eligible to have half of her tuition paid at an accredited school for either a course in a computer-related field, or hotel and restaurant management.

But Adora began to have second thoughts. She wasn't enthusiastic about a career in computers, or the hospitality industry. To her, neither would provide her with much opportunity to determine her own fate. Moreover, the accredited school she would have to attend charged much higher tuition than other schools in Antique Province. So she did what few Filipinos in her shoes would have done: she turned down the scholarship.

Instead, she chose to build on the skills she'd learned at the garment factory and enrolled as a garments technology major at another school. Once in school, she excelled. One day, she was reading through the student handbook and noticed that full academic scholarships were available for good students. Again she applied for a scholarship, and again her diligence paid off. The school paid half of her tuition fees the second semester of her first year, and all of her tuition fees every year thereafter.

To cover her living expenses, and to help her family out, she took on work outside of school at a local clothes design shop. The move was economic and academic -- assignments she got at work doubled as projects she could submit as schoolwork -- but despite that, it was very hard work. She often worked seven days a week, and long into the night, and from the time she entered school, she became her family's primary breadwinner. Adora's long-suffering father died in 2001, when she was a second-year student.

After graduating from school in 2003, Adora started her tailoring and seamstress business as a one-woman operation, armed with a single foot-powered sewing machine. Adora knew that in order to grow her business, she'd need money to be able to buy better equipment, but she couldn't qualify for a loan from a commercial bank. Soon thereafter, Adora discovered Kiva partner Ahon Sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI), which started lending in Antique Province in 1998 after identifying the area as one of the poorest and most in need of its services.

ASHI not only provided Adora the money to buy vital equipment such as high-speed sewing, edging, and embroidery machines, but it helped build her confidence as a businesswoman. For ASHI, lending money is only part of the equation: it also has a keen focus on social development, and strives to build leadership skills among its all-female membership that take out loans as part of groups bound by social collateral.


Through successive loan cycles from ASHI, Adora secured the capital necessary to grow her business. As she expanded her capacity, and built upon her reputation, and her business has now grown so much that she had to hire full-time help. She dreams that three years from now, she will own a well-equipped dress shop to be able to cope with orders for school uniforms in state colleges around the bustling capital town of San Jose de Buenavista, Antique.

Adora is now 28, and married to Juvey, a booking agent for a bus company whose job keeps him away from home for all but two days a month. They have a nine-month old girl, Crysantha Nicole. She is still her family's primary breadwinner; her mother now lives with her and helps with raising pigs and other ventures.

I've met scores of borrowers in my time as a Kiva Fellow -- first in Cambodia, then the Philippines, and now Kenya -- but of all the borrowers I've encountered, Adora stands apart. Most of the borrowers I've met have been able to use loans with modest but very real success: credit helps them to temper the worst shocks of poverty, and puts their families on sounder footing. But few have been able to build businesses that employ others as successfully as Adora's.

I was left wondering what made her different -- why did she succeed where other borrowers hadn't? Had being raised by her aunt left her with the realization that if her immediate family couldn't care for her, then she'd have to do it herself. Had her father's death forced her to accept more responsibility for her loved ones than if he'd survived? She had taken a significant risk turning down the government scholarship she'd received, but it was clearly the right decision. How did she know that she would be more successful tailoring than working in hospitality or computers?

The best answer I can come up with, is that Adora was just incredibly determined to succeed. While I wonder at the mystery of her success, it's possible the better question is "could anything have stopped her?"

John Briggs is a Kiva Fellow currently working with the Kenya Agency for the Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET) based in Nairobi. John is one of our longer-term Kiva Fellows; before going to Kenya, he served with Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) in the Philippines from March to May 2009, and Maxima Mikroheranvatho in Cambodia from October 2008 to February 2009.

- John Briggs is a Kiva Fellow working with the Kenya Agency for the Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET) based in Nairobi. John is one of our longer-term Kiva Fellows; before going to Kenya, he worked with Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) in the Philippines from March to May 2009, and Maxima in Cambodia from October 2008 to February 2009.

“I want the Kiva lenders to know that I only borrow what I need, not what I can.”

These words really took me by surprise, when I visited Kiva Enterpreneur Borya Enhbat a few weeks ago. Of all the messages he could have asked me to pass on to Kiva Lenders, this was most important to him.

At first I wondered if this comment came from his feeling apologetic to Kiva Lenders for needing to borrow their money, and wanting to make sure that they knew it was an act of necessity, not luxury.

But as I got to know him better, I realized that this wasn’t about his feelings towards the Kiva Lenders. This message was coming from the pride that Borya has, and has feelings about the way he lives his life. This is a man with dignity, who taught me about “wants” and “needs”, and what it means to live a proud life.

Borya, his wife and his four children, live in a tent. Where I’m from, we use tents on vacation as a temporary shelter. But in Mongolia, many people live in a “ger”, which is the traditional home structure here. Borya’s wife is his business partner, and he is very proud of his son, a miner - mining is one of the biggest industries in Mongolia. His son is married and lives in a ger nearby.

Borya first became a cobbler while working under the former communist system of Mongolia. However, after the fall of the communist system in 1990, which led to massive food shortages, the collapse of most enterprises and high inflation, Borya decided to try to make it on his own under the new democratic system. It’s amazing to me that the dream of making it on our own – the so-called “American” dream – is actually a global dream, shared by billions of people around the world.

At first, Borya was always asking his friends and family to borrow money for his business, a common situation the unbanked population of the world. However, in 2001 XacBank (pronounced “Haass Bank”), the result of merging two non-bank financial institutions combined, launched with the motto “Mongolians can repay.”



Borya has certainly proven that motto. He has become a regular XacBank client (probably to the relief of his friends!) and he can go straight to the bank to take out micro-loans. One of his previous loans was to buy furniture for his son to live independently in a ger with his wife. With his loan funded by Kiva Lenders, Borya is buying supplies for his cobbler business.

And he has reason to need supplies! This weekend is Naadam in Mongolia, a traditional festival locally called “the three games of men”: wrestling, horse racing and archery. The men of Mongolia are a very tough people, and tough people need tough boots. That’s exactly what Borya plans to sell them this weekend.

Borya has already done his research for this weekend’s business opportunities. He has scouted out his competitors and thinks he can sell his boots at 15,000 tugrogs, undercutting his competitors at 20,000 turgogs (1 USD = 1400 turgogs). This will still allow him a significant profit margin and should increase his sales. Borya seems to know his business well; he has already repaid his loan two months ahead of time, and, as a result, he will receive some of his interest payments back from XacBank.

Eight years after opening, XacBank is a completely self-sufficient microfinance institution. 11 years after starting his small business, with the help of XacBank’s loans, Borya is now looking into a new market – making shoes as well as fixing them. He’s looking to open a second shop, and plans to use his next loan to buy a high quality sewing machine, as his current sewing machine is not good enough to make a large quantity of boots.



There is a Mongolian proverb that Borya likes, which says “if one works hard, good destiny follows.” Knowing Borya’s work ethic, and his attitude toward debt, I now much better understand his message to Kiva lenders:

“I want the Kiva lenders to know that I only borrow what I need, not what I can.”

Borya's message was not about the loans he's taken out. His message was about himself, the type of man he is and the kind of life he lives - one of pride and dignity.


(Note: For some more Mongolian pleasure, listen to Kiva Entrepreneur Enhtuya Erdene-ochir playing the yatga, a traditional Mongolian instrument, and singing the song "Full Moon", which she suggested she sing for Kiva Lenders. Enhtuya will also be busy this weekend - in addition to the house shoes she used her Kiva loan to make, she also makes traditional Mongolian hats and costumes which are worn during Naddam.)"


- Tamara Sanderson (seen here, second from the right, at the XacBank retreat in Mongolia) is a Kiva Fellow currently working with XacBank in Mongolia. Click here to read Tamara's blogs about working with XacBank.

Have you ever wondered who is out there in the field, taking Kiva videos like this:




In many cases, it's a Kiva Fellow.

Kiva Fellows are a crucial part of making Kiva work, working with Kiva's Field Partners on the ground, and meeting with Kiva Entrepreneurs.

We are now accepting applications for the next group of Kiva Fellows, to head into the field in October 2009.

The Kiva Fellowship is ideal for someone who:

• Is interested in a career in microfinance or international development
• Would like to get more involved by volunteering for Kiva
• Would love to experience living in another country and giving back at the same time
  

Amazing!!!

Cissy DeLuca was an intern at the Kiva office in San Francisco for 5 months before beginning her Kiva Felllowship with TLM in Indonesia.

During her time in the Kiva office she caught some candid moments in the Kiva office on her video camera, and has put together this fairly hilarious video of some of the staff and volunteers at Kiva:



We thought it was a pretty funny look at ourselves, and a great visualization of Cissy's move from San Francisco to Indonesia to start her Fellowship. Read Cissy's full blogpost here.

Thursday, Kiva quietly launched in Liberia, and Kiva Lenders noticed - within an hour all loans were fully funded, despite the dozens of other loans on the website!

Kiva’s first partner in Liberia is called Liberian Enterprise Assistance Program, or LEAP. The logo demonstrates that this acronym is not a lucky mistake, but an intentional choice to demonstrate that with a micro-loan from LEAP – you can leap into a better life!

Liberia is freshly recovering from two major wars that finally came to an end in 2003. The wars created serious problems with the infrastructure all over the country, which in turn created huge obstacles for anyone working to help the country get back on her feet.

Many people at LEAP say that the inflow of grants after the war made work difficult for microfinance institutions. They say that - these days, many people in Liberia are not used to being supported in a way that holds them accountable for their actions. As many clients convert from taking grants to taking loans, LEAP’s staff makes a strong effort to sensitize people to the importance of making good repayments; they have to remind them - this is not a grant. LEAP’s staff reminds clients that they should pay back their loans on time, because when the aid that is in Liberia now moves on to other places, microfinance institutions will remain as a way for people to build better lives for themselves.

LEAP staff members also explain that they have been pleasantly surprised at the dedications that their clients have in paying back their loans. On Friday, I visited a refugee camp that has two medium sized markets in it. The branch manager that I was with explained that he was very nervous about working in a refugee camp as this was the exact population that has been provided with so many grants over the years.


As we made our way around the market, he introduced me to the sellers, and most of them were LEAP’s clients! A few proudly told me that they were on their second cycle with LEAP, and they had paid well the first time.

LEAP will be posting primarily group loans on Kiva – and most of these groups have just five members. Browse LEAP’s loans and get a feel for the entrepreneurs in Liberia!

Luis is not your average bakery delivery guy, bringing cakes, pastries and breads to your local restaurants, delis and hotels. On first glance he’s just another guy zipping around Manhattan in a van, with places to go and deliveries to make. But if you have the chance to get to know him, Luis is one of the most inspiring people you will ever meet.

Luis was homeless just ten years ago. He was that guy holding a sign saying “Need Work”. Without a place to stay or a way to earn a living, he was invisible, as many of the homeless are to the rest of society. That was, at least, until the owner of a bakery decided to give Luis a chance, and offered him work doing deliveries.

Luis didn’t let this chance go to waste, and he built a reputation for being a hard worker. Delivering baked goods in New York is hard work. You begin at 2 a.m., when many in Manhattan are still partying the night away, and you work into the afternoon. He kept at his work, building relationships with colleagues and customers, and keeping his boss happy, until the attacks of September 11 changed everything.

On September 11, 2001, at 8:30am, Luis made his regular delivery to a restaurant in the World Trade Center called Windows on the World; most of the customers that he delivered to were in and around the World Trade Center. Just minutes later, the attacks on the World Trade Center took place while Luis was making a delivery in another building. Luis miraculously survived the events, and to this day he carries in his wallet the pass he used to access the World Trade Center for the last time.

The van Luis drove was parked many floors below the World Trade Center and did not survive the attacks. Neither did most of the businesses that received deliveries from the company Luis delivered for and so the delivery service was unable to recoup the losses and was forced to fold. Luis, however, had too much to work for – three sons – and so he decided to start a delivery business of his own.

Luis didn’t have enough cash to buy a van himself – he needed a loan. And he couldn’t find any banks that would lend him money to buy a van for a new delivery business. He did, however, find a microfinance institution based in Manhattan, ACCION USA, who would lend him the money for the van, recognizing that he was hard-working and had the experience to be successful in his own delivery company. Luis bought a van, and starting with only two of the old company’s customers, he established a new client base.

Since Luis launched his own delivery company, business has been slow at first, but is increasing, and he now owns a second van so that he can hire additional help when he needs it. He still works hard, picking up bread for his first delivery route at 2 a.m., and visiting two more bakeries at 6 a.m. and again at 11 a.m. for more deliveries. He makes dozens of stops every day to restaurants and hotels throughout New York City.

Most recently, Luis applied for a second loan through ACCION USA. He needs to refrigerate his van so that when he makes deliveries in the hot New York summer, the cakes don’t spoil. Refrigerating an entire delivery van is not cheap, and he needed $5,625 to buy a cooling system for the vehicle. ACCION USA, as one of Kiva’s pilot partnerships in the US, posted Luis’ loan request on Kiva.org and it has already been funded by 160 Kiva Lenders.

Luis admits that he works hard, but he has a strong motivation to do so – three sons, two of whom are serving as Marines, one of whom just recently returned safe from Iraq. Luis’ youngest son Luigi, is thirteen years old, and the namesake for Luis’ company. Luis jokes that his thirteen year old son is the actual owner of the business, but he is very sincere when he says that his son is the reason he works so hard.

Luis, like fathers around the world, is striving to build a better life for his children. He is proud of the life he is leading, the legacy that he is creating and the prosperity he is providing for his family. Every morning when Luis climbs into the van he owns, he sees his son's name proudly displayed on the door and works hard to build that legacy.

Watch the video below to see Luis telling his story to Kiva.org President Premal Shah, ACCION USA President & CEO Gina Harman and ACCION USA CFO Paul Quintero.

The next class of Kiva Fellows has finished training at Kiva headquarters and will soon be heading into the field. Congratulations to the 27 trainees that officially became Kiva Fellows last week. They enthusiastically handled five full days of powerpoint presentations, demos, and discussions.

Some highlights from training included the Kiva Social, a cable car ride through San Francisco, the Go-Game fundraiser, and watching funny welcome videos from two KF7's.

The KF8 fellows will be placed in 19 countries throughout the world. This class will be strengthening the relationship between their host MFI and Kiva and several will be working with brand new Kiva field partners.



KF8 Trainees: Velizara, Merrick, Jenny, Julia, Cissy, Laura, Courtney, Jaclyn, Hanh, Suzy, Nilima, Susan, Polly, Nancy, Sloane, Alison, Shereef, Rob, Andrew, Athan, Joel, Lee, Dave, Cameron, Tamara, and Michael (Zev not pictured).

Kiva Fellows Application:

KF9 applicants recently had trouble submitting their application via our web application. We discovered that a software bug broke the application between May 23rd and May 27th. The Kiva Fellows Program did not receive your application if you applied during that timeframe. We apologize for the inconvenience, but please resubmit your application soon. The application deadline for KF9 is Monday June 1st (although we accept applications on a rolling basis).

Successful Kiva Fellows tend to have significant overseas experience, background in economics/finance/consulting, enthusiasm for Kiva, and fluency or advanced communication ability in the language spoken in the country placement. The languages that we are looking for include: Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Tagalog or Cebuano, Mongolian, Urdu, Portuguese, Swahili, Khmer, Vietnamese, Nepali, Bulgarian, and Turkish. For the KF9 class, the Kiva Fellows Program is particularly interested in applicants with specific technical skills who can build tools to benefit our field partners.

We are excited to see the great work that KF8 will provide to Kiva and their host MFI and we are already looking forward to bringing on the next class of fellows in KF9.