Betania Iv-b Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Betania IV-B Group, consisting of Margen Rassi, Dominggus Obethetan, Efni Seo, Elias Rensini, Felipus Ota, Fransina Kapitan, Henderina Seo, James Gabriel, Melki Ataupah, Melkianus Rensini by Tanaoba Lais Manekat Foundation (TLM) in Indonesia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 12 months of this loan, Tanaoba Lais Manekat Foundation (TLM) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Hi Kiva lenders,

My name is Kieran Ball, and I am the Kiva Fellow at TLM in West Timor. I will shortly be finishing my fellowship and wanted to send a message to everyone who has been lucky enough to make a loan to this great new Kiva partner. The TLM staff are still excited and amazed by the number of people from all over the world who want to lend their clients money.

Although TLM plans to provide journal updates on 100% of their loans, we thought it would be interesting for lenders to read a bit about what happens "behind-the-scenes". I've also written a short tale and videotaped a trip to meet one of TLM’s first Kiva clients in a beautiful little village here in West Timor.

TLM News: Implementing Kiva

The past ten weeks in West Timor have flown by. I arrived in time to help Kiva Partnership Development Specialist, Rico Muñoz, with the initial training for the TLM staff. This went smoothly and was received well by the crowd of enthusiastic learners who gathered in the room.

Since then, despite a few minor blips with one of the newer Kiva systems, we've managed to post and fund up to our monthly limit for the past two months. Kiva wisely designates the first few months for new MFIs as the pilot phase. During the pilot phase, we must achieve a number of goals in order to prove that we will be able to cope with moving to the active phase. I'm happy to say that TLM is on track to complete all of their goals and will hopefully move to the active phase in the next month or two.

Also during my time here, I've been taking some photographs of Kiva clients for the Kiva PR guru, Fiona. Incredibly, I had the privilege of meeting a client who I declare has the best smile on Kiva. See what you think. I mean, my jokes are funny, sure, but a smile of this calibre is still unusual.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kieranball/3440995360/in/set-72157616650350143/

Despite being in a somewhat secluded location in the global scheme of things, TLM is keen to be a trendsetter when it comes to being web savvy. They are, as far as I know, the first or one of the first Kiva partners to have a Twitter account. You can follow their updates at this address: www.twitter.com/tlmwesttimor. Kiva coordinator Shanty updates it regularly, and if you tweet her, she will tweet back when she has a moment. Feel free to say hi!

I am also proud to announce that TLM has their first proper website after twelve years of operation, which I worked on when not busy with Kiva responsibilities. It's a basic website, but it’s an improvement over what was there before! You can find it here: www.ytlm.org.

Finally, I wrote a blog to introduce TLM to Kiva lenders, which you can find here, including a video of a trip to the field:

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/04/06/welcome-kiva-to-west-timor/

More recently, I blogged about Zakarias, a 77-year-old who is starting a new business:

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/05/04/77-is-never-too-old-to-start-a-business/.

I hope you will keep an eye out for the ever-increasing number of TLM loans that will be hitting the Kiva site soon. We are all very grateful for your support of Kiva, of TLM, and of the people of Indonesia.

Part Two, a Client Story, to follow.

Story of a Client Visit: Yurita Natun (Betania Group)

Last week we went to the village of Naet to meet Yurita Natun and her family. Yurita recently took out a cattle-fattening loan with money borrowed from Kiva. TLM is the only Kiva field partner to offer noncash loans. Instead, TLM purchases a cow and delivers it to the clients, who feed and maintain the cow for a year until it can be sold for a profit.

Naet village is set in the hills about an-hour-and-a-half from Kupang city. I can safely say that Naet is one of the few villages I have penciled in as a potential retirement location! It is set in lush green jungle on bumpy dirt roads, with the sides of the valley extending both up and down from the village, and colorful flowers adorning the trees and houses. If this village were in the south of France, it would be doubtless be overrun with tourists.

Thankfully it is in West Timor, and the villagers are able to live a relatively peaceful life, farming the land and raising livestock. The local school just down the road has a gigantic playing field where soccer games often have boys and horses running around together. West Timorians love gardening, and like every village we pass through, Naet has carefully tended hedges, stylishly trimmed trees, delicately set garden paths, and aesthetically positioned potted plants.

We meet Yurita at her house, a small, bare wooden construction with a tin roof, and a neighboring kitchen outhouse. She has her 5-year-old daughter Reni, with her. She tells us that her husband Apner, is out hunting in the forest for an animal which I haven't heard of. After a brief discussion with Shanty, the Kiva coordinator, we decide it is similar to a squirrel.

This is Yurita's first cattle loan, so the usual journal questions about the effect of the loan do not really apply, as she will not see any profits until next year. Instead we improvise, which I find always makes the conversations better anyway.

We start by asking about her daily routine. We are all bowled over when she tells us she gets up at 4 am, early even by West Timor standards, to prepare breakfast and lunch for her husband and children. She spends the rest of the day feeding the cattle and tending to the family's crops, and usually goes to bed at 8 or 9 pm because she is tired from the long day.

I wonder how she keeps her brain active; does she have a television, does she read? She says she does have a television but usually never watches it, she leaves that to her sons. As far as reading goes, she mainly reads her bible. Her favorite book is Matthew.

We find out about her children. She ruefully tells us that her two sons, age 15 and 13, have just dropped out of junior high school to become full-time farmers like their dad. Although her sons are intelligent, they don't really like school, and the senior high school is too far from their village to make the trip each day.

I ask her if she has any hopes or goals for the future. She says that her one hope is that her daughter Reni, who is sitting on her knee and later appears eating TWO ice creams simultaneously(!), will complete school and be the first family member to attend university. She had hoped this for her sons, but unfortunately it was not to be.

Later I get to meet one of her sons, Ricky (15). He also received a cow from TLM. I ask him what his plans are now that he has left school. He explains that, apart from day-to-day farming, he will feed his cow until he can sell it for a profit of around $80. With that money, he will buy two pigs of his own ($40 each) and fatten them to sell. After doing this for a few cycles, he will have enough saved up to buy his own cow (approximately $300).

Before we leave, Yurita shows us her kitchen and presents us with a gigantic bag of cherry tomatoes she has grown. I later use these tomatoes to cook a decent Bolognese sauce! Thank you Yurita!

I made this short video/slideshow of our visit to see Yurita. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.vimeo.com/4489014.

Hello Kiva Lenders,

Last week our Kiva Field Officer traveled for about 55 KM from Kupang Citty, passed a bumpy road to get into Nekmese Village. He went to this village in order to get an update on Betania IV-B Group. After two and half hours ride from Kupang City he arrived in Nekmese Village. He met with one of the Betania IV-B Group members, Fransina Kapitan. She was wearing the same clothes as she wore when the group picture was taken.

Fransina Kapitan is a 65 year old widow with 3 children, but all of them are married. Since the death of her husband 14 years ago, Fransina lives on her own. She lives her life by farming and selling banana and coconut. She usually sells her agricultural products in Oesao Market which is situated for about 28 KM from her village.

Living as a poor farmer and also a widow is not easy for Fransina. This is the reason why Fransina interested in joining cattle fattening program. Fransina joined Betania IV-B Group and has received a loan amounting to IDR 3,300,000 from TLM. The loan has been spent to buy cattle to be fattened over a 12 month period. Having cattle to be fattened really a valuable thing for Fransina as this what she dreamed of.

Fransina is currently in the second month of the loan. She is really happy to join the cattle fattening program. She enjoys her activity to feed the cattle everyday. She usually starts her day from 6am. She goes to the farm to feed the cattle and cultivates her farm. She usually returns home at 5pm. Fransina spends her spare time to join woman association in the village and also in the local church. She also sets her time to join the woman devotion every Tuesday.

Fransina hopes that she will get a big profit from the cattle selling in the future, so she will be able to renovate her house. She really thanks God for the opportunity given to her to improve her life.

Thank you Kiva Lenders for supporting Betania IV-B Group and people in West Timor.

TLM Staff