To conclude our Passport Series on Rwanda, we would like to share with you a couple of particularly inspiring borrower stories to remind you just how impactful a $25 loan can be -- especially in a country where almost 45% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Meet Felicite.
A 45-year-old mother of two, her (and her family’s) livelihood depends on her farm -- just like 90% of the R ...
After several weeks of extensive user testing, we’re excited to release a new site update for the lending team "About" pages next week. This is all part of a concerted effort to better integrate lender feedback into our design process, and I’m personally excited about how much we’ve been able to do with this next round of changes. In addition to your emails and comments on the blog and le ...
My first mind blowing experience in Kosovo happened almost immediately when my feet touched the ground getting out of the bus in Kosovo - what an introduction to a country!
Having emerged from the shadow of a war that divided ethnic communities in the Balkans just over a decade ago, Kosovo considers itself to be the baby of Europe – having declared independence as recently as 2008. ...
Riding a motorcycle in a developing country is, well, eventful to say the least. The term “road hazard” takes on a whole new meaning. Horse drawn carts, herds of cattle, stray chickens – the possibilities are endless. The first time I had the pleasure of experiencing a motorcycle ride in Nicaragua was the day I met Claudia.
Trying to look tough...not sure I pull it off in my preppy K ...
“I just want to be a successful business woman,” Sandra says when asked what she hopes to achieve in the next 2-3 years.
She already is. In fact, she is the most successful agent working with Zoona--a mobile money/transactions company that allows individuals to send and receive money over their phones using the conversion of cash into electronic value, and electronic value back into ca ...
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Canterbury Microeconomics Club
A Thank You Poem
(Inspired by the rhymes of the Grade Three Kiva Ninjas at Bear Creek Elementary)
Not all feel compelled to jump up and dance,
Upon hearing that April’s Month of Micro-finance.
Once you’ve heard these stories, though, we know you’ll be crumping,
Cuz’ since we heard them here, our hearts have been thumping...
It wasn’t enough just to say…
To conclude our Passport Series on Rwanda, we would like to share with you a couple of particularly inspiring borrower stories to remind you just how impactful a $25 loan can be -- especially in a country where almost 45% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Meet Felicite.
A 45-year-old mother of two, her (and her family’s) livelihood depends on her farm -- just like 90% of the…
After several weeks of extensive user testing, we’re excited to release a new site update for the lending team "About" pages next week. This is all part of a concerted effort to better integrate lender feedback into our design process, and I’m personally excited about how much we’ve been able to do with this next round of changes. In addition to your emails and comments on the blog and lending…
‘'It’s amazing to see the other volunteers dedicating themselves to Kiva. I am truly in awe of them and how much they know. I can always draw on them through the forum when I have a question and within seconds people respond!"
City: Minneapolis, United States
Languages: Spanish
Team: Saliendo Adelante
Time with Kiva: 3 years and 5 months
Outstanding contributions to Kiva:
Pam McMurry,…
This past week we've seen so many great videos that really resonated with us. So we would like to leave you with some inspirational weekend watching material!
Video is an utterly unique medium, with so much potential. We're looking forward to bringing you more stories of Kiva borrowers on video, especially as the next class of Kiva Fellows prepares to head out into the field after…
This is a guest post by Emily Stone, the managing director at Kiva partner Maya Mountain Cacao in Belize. MMC supports cacao growers in the country to improve their livelihoods and get their high-quality product to market.
Chocolate. Dark brown, delicious, sweet, creamy, cocoa-loaded delights. Brownies, cookies, mousse, tarts, cakes, ganache. Candy bars, truffles, and bonbons.
This is the…
Tragedy struck Rwanda almost 20 years ago when hundreds of thousands of citizens were killed in a matter of months in a horrific genocide. While great strides have been made, the economy has never been the same since. Over 40% of the population still lives below the poverty line. We are proud that Kiva’s presence in Rwanda can help the nation regrow by providing opportunity to small businesses…
This is a guest post by Kiva Fellow Esther Honig, who spent the last four months working with Kiva partner Fondo Esperanza in Chile.
In Santiago, Chile, a recent census showed that 50% of households living below the poverty line are run by single mothers.
The reason why has a lot to do with gender inequality in Chilean society. Of 93 countries surveyed around the world, Chile ranks 60th on the…
This is a guest post from Allie Hill, the Kiva Coordinator who works at field partner HOPE Congo.
The author (right) with a HOPE Congo client Edith.
It was my first month living in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. I had a mixture of emotions adjusting to a new culture, climate, and language, yet I was excited about my work with HOPE Congo’s clients. During my orientation, I visited several…
For Mother's Day, we wanted to hear from some of our partners in the field about how motherhood, or helping mothers, has changed their perspective or inspired them to do more. We were excited to speak to Yuthida Sophat, treasury officer for VisionFund Cambodia, who is also a young mother.
KIVA: How does VisionFund Cambodia work to serve and support mothers?
YUTHIDA: VisionFund…
Just in time for Mother’s Day, Save the Children has published its 14th annual State of the World’s Mothers report -- defining the best and worst places in the world to be a mother.
In this year’s report, 176 countries were ranked based on the well-being of mothers and children. Their health, educational, economic, and political status were all taken into consideration.
Kiva works with…
No larger than the state of Maryland, Rwanda is a small landlocked nation in the heart of Africa. Full of lakes and very mountainous, it is a beautiful country with just over 12 million inhabitants.
Today, some consider it Africa’s “biggest success story,” but just 19 short years ago the nation was haunted by one of the most horrific genocides in history.
1994 GENOCIDE
Unfortunately, when…
Without the hard work and dedication of countless individuals, Kiva could never have touched the lives of over 1 million borrowers.
Kiva Coordinators are critical to making this possible. KCs work with loan officers in the field to gather photos and stories of borrowers to post on the Kiva site -- connecting them to our community of lenders ready to help. KCs ensure that borrowers are…
Do you remember in school when your teachers used say that imitation is the highest form of flattery? Maybe that didn’t happen to you, but I can remember hating it when a kid next to me would copy my drawing, cupcake decoration or science project and claim it was his own idea. That said -- no matter where you fall on the flattery spectrum -- here at Kiva we think copycats are great.
Let me…
Have you ever wondered how a relatively small non-profit organization in San Francisco has managed to work effectively in more than 65 countries around the world? Or how new initiatives like Kiva Zip have scaled to over $1 million in loan volume within 17 months of launching?
While there are many factors that have contributed to these successes, one thing is certain -- Kiva would not be where…
This is the first installment of a Mother's Day guest blog series, highlighting what Kiva makes possible for mothers, whether they are lenders, borrowers, or Kiva partners.
As we approach Mother’s Day next Sunday, we wanted to spotlight three Kiva lenders and their stories about making a difference for moms around the world. Lloyd Thompson honors his mom's charitable spirit from the…
This is a guest post by Gabriela Barbosa, a volunteer Team Leader for Kiva's Review and Translation Program.
If you're reading this, chances are you want to make a difference in the world by helping entrepreneurs change their lives with small loans. Since its founding in 2005, Kiva has enabled over 900,000 of us lenders to make loans to more than 1 million borrowers. But what many…
One of our favorite data visualization sites, the World Bank Tumblr recently posted this fascinating infographic about global internet use.
For a larger version of the graph you can click here.
The visualization skews a world map to demonstrate both the number of internet users per country as well as the percentage of the population with access to internet.
The size of each country on the…
We’re thrilled to announce our new partnership with Kubo.financiero in Mexico! Through branchless banking and other innovative services, Kubo is bringing interest rates down and making financing more affordable for the people who need it most.
Did you know that in developing countries, informal lending is a very popular way to access money? Be it for personal use or to start a company, people…
This Passport Series has focused on the unique challenges faced by Palestinian borrowers. With skyrocketing unemployment rates, creative entrepreneurialism becomes all the more important.
Kiva is proud to provide capital to courageous, hardworking borrowers in this part of the world. So to conclude this Passport Series, we would like to share with you stories of four entrepreneurs who -- with…