Kiva Blog Update

Kiva Blog Update,

Born in a refugee camp, now designing her own collections in NYC

This is part of our World Refugee Day series honoring Kiva borrowers who made the incredible journey from refugee to entrepreneur. Jembere. In Amharic – the native language of Ethiopia – it means, “my sunset.” When Abaynesh, a designer in New York, fulfilled her dream of creating her own eyewear brand, she named it Jembere in honor of her roots. Her collections are now sold b ...

Kiva Blog Update

Kiva Blog Update,

A farmer rebuilds again, as a refugee in her own land

This is part of our World Refugee Day series honoring Kiva borrowers who made the incredible journey from refugee to entrepreneur. Leila is constantly smiling, and beams with pride when talking about her farm. But behind her sunny exterior, she carries a story of extreme hardship and perseverance. Leila used to live in Ochamchire, in the coastal region of Abkhazia, situated in the nor ...

Kiva Blog Update

Kiva Blog Update,

After fleeing war across 8 countries, a tailor pursues his dream

This is part of our World Refugee Day series honoring Kiva borrowers who made the incredible journey from refugee to entrepreneur. For Kone, a designer and tailor, achieving his dream of owning his own business in Nairobi has been a long journey, both mentally and physically. In 2002, he was the proud owner of a stable and prosperous tailoring business in his native Côte d’Ivoire ...

Kiva Blog Update

Kiva Blog Update,

She’s 22, from rural Zimbabwe, and a mogul in the making

This is the fourth in our ‘Invest in her, invest in change’ series celebrating the power of women entrepreneurs around the world. Join Kiva in crowdfunding $1 million in loans to women by International Women’s Day on March 8. Lindiwe, 22, beams with pride as she presents bottles of her homemade juice and soda to customers at her shop in rural Zimbabwe. Each bottle has a hand-glued label ...

Kiva Blog Update

Kiva Blog Update,

Finding a green, local solution to a deadly household chore

It’s early evening and the sun is glowing, low and golden, above a homestead located a 3-hour drive from Cape Coast, Ghana. The air has cooled just enough for Grace and her family to start cooking their dinner over an open fire. Tonight they are making gravy and yams, and crushing together tomatoes and garden eggs, a popular type of eggplant.   At regular intervals Grace and h ...

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  1. Kiva Fellows Update

    Bagururu or bust: My day in a Dagomba village

    There are not many things I will get up at 4:30 a.m. for, but as it turns out, the chance to attend a Dagomba Outdooring ceremony is one of them. I had been invited by my housemate, a former Peace Corps volunteer who has lived in Ghana for seven years. A week earlier a new baby had been born to her host family, so when she invited me to spend a day in the village, I jumped at the chance.…

    Posted by susan.patterson@fellows.kiva.org

  2. Kiva Fellows Update

    ¡Viva la Educación! Dominican students invest in their future with Kiva loans

    As a Kiva Fellow in the Dominican Republic, I had the distinct pleasure of working with FUNDAPEC (the funding arm of Action for Education and Culture) and getting to know some of the students it supports. FUNDAPEC has been expanding access to education for nearly 50 years, lending to over 100,000 students since its founding in 1967.  Based on its long-standing positive reputation countrywide,…

    Posted by Abigail Bates

  3. Kiva Fellows Update

    Video Blog: 10 things I wish I knew before college

    (YouTube link below) Over the last four months, I have been serving as a Fellow with the American University of Central Asia (AUCA), a Kiva field partner in Kyrgyzstan. AUCA is an education loan field partner through which students in need of financial aid are supported with $1,100 USD loans by Kiva lenders. A 4.5 year grace period and 0% interest makes this loan product unique. A key piece…

    Posted by Priya Singh

  4. Kiva Fellows Update

    The Forgotten Pearl of the Antilles

    When the French colonizers settled in the Hispaniola Island, they called Haiti “La Perle des Antilles.” Once you spend enough time in the country, you will find that there is a good reason for calling it as such. For anyone who visits Haiti for the first time, they will be shocked by their first impressions while driving from the airport to the hotel: the narrow and overcrowded streets, the…

    Posted by Alonso Espinoza

  5. Kiva Blog Update

    Making it Matter to a Million one borrower at a time

    This is a guest blog from Nate Hurst, Chief Sustainability & Social Impact Officer at HP, our Matter to a Million partner. Sabita never had the opportunity to go to school, but she wants her children to have a different future. Sabita is part of a group of female entrepreneurs in Balangir, India, who use Kiva loans to create successful businesses to fund their children’s education and…

    Posted by Nate Hurst

  6. Kiva Fellows Update

    Clean energy for Kenya

    Clean energy is a huge need for rural farmers in Kenya. Only 23% of Kenyans are connected to the grid, leaving the majority of the country without access to electricity. And when 85% of the population lives in rural areas, creating that access is not an easy task. Kiva’s partner, Juhudi Kilimo is well known in Kenya for providing agricultural loans to lift rural farmers out of poverty, (such as…

    Posted by Maelen Haugen

  7. Kiva Blog Update

    Cool new partners working with organic farmers and accelerating entrepreneurs

    The Kiva community is happy to welcome some amazing new partners this month who all share a common mission with Kiva: to empower people with opportunities to create better lives for themselves. Whether it’s giving farmers in Peru access to resources and markets, training farmers in Mozambique to increase productivity, or connecting entrepreneurs with the tools they need to tackle some of the…

    Posted by Natalie Brown

  8. Kiva Blog Update

    Our 31st fellows class is hitting the field

    Once again, we’ve welcomed our new fellow trainees to our headquarters in San Francisco to train them up on all things Kiva before their 6 month fellowships with our field partners. This fellows class is 18 strong and will be working with 36 field partners across 20 countries. The week was filled with early morning training sessions (fueled by coffee), afternoon lunches catered by local Kiva…

    Posted by Aurora Lee

  9. Kiva Fellows Update

    Inspirational loan officers, a budding college student, and lots of rain – must be a BV in the bateyes of La Romana, Dominican Republic

    Sugarcane being transported for planting during the off season After a couple of months in the capital of Santo Domingo, I headed to La Romana to visit a more rural branch office of Esperanza, one of Kiva’s partners in the Dominican Republic. For a little less than two weeks, I worked with the exceptionally welcoming La Romana staff to conduct a Borrower Verification (BV), an audit to ensure…

    Posted by Abigail Bates

  10. Kiva Fellows Update

    Pokémon Go: The colliding of two worlds

    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…

    Posted by Maelen Haugen

  11. Kiva Blog Update

    How an ex-trader is helping girls of color unleash their financial power

    At just 23 years old, Chloe is the founder and CEO of BlackFem, non-profit venture capital firm that teaches financial literacy to women and girls of color in under-served communities. Her philosophy regarding wealth in America might surprise you, and it’s now the title of a new children’s book she co-wrote: ‘Money Does Grow on Trees.’ Read more about Chloe's story at Kiva's Medium page -->…

    Posted by Natalie Brown

  12. Kiva Fellows Update

    Crocodiles, Coffee and Collective Impact

    A view overlooking the coast of Dili (the capital of Timor-Leste) What could crocodiles, coffee and collective impact possibly have in common (other than some ingenious alliteration)? As a Kiva fellow, I spent a month in Timor Leste (East Timor) and found that these three things offer a taste of Timor through their importance in the past, present and future of the country.  First off, let’s…

    Posted by Roshni Khurana

  13. Kiva Fellows Update

    Kivan Hobbies & Habits

    Fellows are introducing old and new routines, hobbies and habits in their new environment. Here is what they are up to! Trishna- India   Something Old: Sticking to my Colorado roots I have continued my love for the outdoors and hiking by joining trekking groups in Bangalore. Trekking groups here are fantastic because they arrange the location, transportation, and food for the day so…

    Posted by Trishna Patel

  14. Kiva Blog Update

    Volunteer Spotlight: “I feel so lucky to be able to do this work.”

    All over the world, Review and Translation Program (RTP) volunteers dedicate their time and skills to ensure that the thousands of loans that come in from Kiva’s partners are edited and translated from our five key languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian. In the past three months alone, RTP volunteers have reviewed 47,529 loans, averaging over 15,000 loans per month. They…

    Posted by Kelsey Renz

  15. Kiva Fellows Update

    Can a cow beat the Dow? Measuring the financial impact of a Kiva loan

    In December 2007, two things happened almost simultaneously: 1.) I enrolled in a Finance and Applied Mathematics dual-degree program at the University of Auckland and; 2.) Financial markets all over the world crashed overnight This naturally meant that my entire tertiary education revolved around the recession. I spent many nights using the benefit of hindsight to build financial models that…

    Posted by Priya Singh

  16. Kiva Blog Update

    Keeping traditions alive and reaching remote communities in Cambodia

    This is part of our series celebrating the unifying spirit of the Summer Games. Cambodia is one of 28 Kiva countries that have never won a medal, so we’re rallying to show our support through loans this month! Team Kiva for the win! Situated between Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia is a small, compact country of mostly flat and forested land: Cambodia. This beautiful country is home…

    Posted by Natalie Brown

  17. Kiva Blog Update

    Single moms, seniors among the entrepreneurs renewing El Salvador

    This is part of our series celebrating the unifying spirit of the summer games. El Salvador is one of 28 Kiva countries that have never won a medal, so we’re rallying to show our support through loans this month! Team Kiva for the win!   Nestled in the mountains of Central America is the smallest but most densely populated country in the region, El Salvador. Home to more than 6 million…

    Posted by Alicia Fan

  18. Kiva Fellows Update

    Disclaimer: you will learn nothing of microfinance or Kiva by reading this blog – you may however have a chuckle on my behalf

    I am writing this blog from a cafe in Jaen, Peru. By my estimation I am the only white person in the entire city. I’ve come to this conclusion on account of not seeing anyone overtly non-Peruvian and being regularly stared at with great skepticism. Obviously, I have no qualms about being in such a scenario – it’s simply something I have never experienced. The first month and a half of my…

    Posted by Cooper Fitzgerald

  19. Kiva Fellows Update

    By the numbers: Sistema Biobolsa is ahead of the curve on what matters most

    As a Kiva Fellow on my own in a new country, I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts. One of which, the Marketplace Tech podcast, has a game called Silicon Tally. Every week on Silicon Tally, the host and a guest try to guess the significance of numbers from that week’s tech news headlines that have been stripped from their context. Here’s my version, Mexico Tally, with this week’s focus on Sistema…

    Posted by Catherine Wright

  20. Kiva Fellows Update

    Karibus and Kwaheris: Spotlight on Tujijenge Staff, Yessaya Lyimo

    Standing at a whopping 6 feet 2 inches tall, with kind eyes and a warm, toothy grin, Yessaya Lyimo is quite the presence in any room. He is the first person I met in Tanzania, and has probably been the most influential in making my time here a safe, engaging, and enjoyable one. Yessaya at this desk in the office   Since the moment he spotted me (not a difficult task, but hey) in the steamy…

    Posted by Katie Hoselton