Kiva Fellows Blogs - some excellent stuff recently

[Guest]

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[AccountAbility]

Excellent and timely post from Josh about Trust and what it means in our current economic difficulties in the "developed" countries as well as it's value in the villages well beyond the financing of group loans.

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/10/19/trust-as-a-foundation/

Dan

[Mona]

A nice new Kiva fellow blog from Tanzania was published today on http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/10/27/a-match-made-in-heaven/. As it is rather short I'll post it here completely:

A Match Made in Heaven
27 October 2008

After working at FINCA for six years and then earning a Masters degree in the United States, Winnie Terry was well prepared to start a new microfinance organization (MFI). Together with some former colleagues, she opened an MFI in Dar es Salaam known as Tujijenge Tanzania (meaning “build together” in KiSwahili). With Winnie as the managing director, they kicked off in July 2006 and were giving loans to their first groups that November.

When Winnie first learned about microfinance in 1998, her initial reaction was, “that will never work!” But after she started working at FINCA, she found she related well to the women receiving loans and liked this systematic method of offering credit. When opening Tujijenge Tanzania, her and her colleagues were looking to fine-tune the process of offering credit. Even today, Tujijenge isn’t trying to be the largest MFI in Dar es Salaam in terms of clients or portfolio size. Rather, they want to be an MFI of best practices. They work hard to determine the needs of their clients and meet those needs through innovative products. For example, Tujijenge administers debit cards when disbursing a loan instead of handing a client a wad of cash. They believe this hinders the urge to quickly spend the cash on hand, and is safer for the clients and loan officers than carrying cash.

In the next few years, Tujijenge is hoping to expand its outreach and grow its portfolio – but at a sustainable pace. In 2009, Tujijenge intends to open a second branch in Mtwara. Just north of the Mozambican border, Mtwara is a rural area where there is little or no access to credit.

When speaking with her, Winnie stressed the importance of being a transparent and honest MFI. To Winnie, working for a transparent and honest organization is more important than anything else. When I heard this, I immediately thought about the importance Kiva places on transparency. Perhaps this underlying principal of transparency is why Kiva and Tujijenge Tanzania are such great partners!

[Jan & John]

  Bill Brick is continuing to make me cry with today's gripping post from Uganda...

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/11/16/a-ghost-called-specioza

so much so that I have linked it on Facebook for my virtual friends...

and will be printing it to show my (actual) friends this morning...

jan

[P, B and J]

A wonderful blog entry which I was so happy to see, especially because I lent to the borrower mentioned, but also because it is very inspiring and I am very impressed with this young man in Indonesia!

Rai’s Way
25 November 2008

Across from DINARI Foundation’s office, there is a large concrete lot with two long warehouses lining the perimeter. In the middle of the lot, blue tarps covered three mounds that were perhaps fifteen feet in diameter. In the morning, workers removed the tarps, revealing piles of what looked like sand as high as the men’s waists. Two of the men wheeled out mechanized plows and bulldozed the piles, gradually spreading the material across the concrete in messy spirals. A third worker appeared with a bandanna covering his nose and mouth, looking like a bandit. He and the others used [...]

For the rest (it's too long to post here, plus there are photos and a video! ): http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/11/25/rais-way/

Rai's (I Made Indra Bangsawan's) loan: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=62697

 

  Lander!!! 

[P, B and J]

Oops, I should also add that at the end of his entry Lander Burr is asking for some assistance if possible:

While I always welcome your comments, I would also like to ask for your assistance this time. I have offered to help Rai find organizations involved in sustainable farming that might be interested in supporting his efforts. My knowledge of agricultural organizations is minimal, so I would be grateful for any suggestions you might have. You can leave a comment on this blog or on Rai’s profile on Kiva [...]

Here's the link once more: http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/11/25/rais-way/

[Liliane]

How often do Kiva fellows go on to be full time Kiva employees at HQ?

[saabnet]

How often do Kiva fellows go on to be full time Kiva employees at HQ?

I would guess not very often. I don't think Kiva has a significantly large pool of money for new employees and here in San Francisco, I have to wonder just how far a Kiva salary goes these days. Thankfully gas is now down under $2.40 a gallon - it went as high as $5.11 here just outside the city. I think the latest hires for Kiva include a Director of Development and I know they were looking for an IT guy who could handle pretty much every technology there is which tells me that Kiva has not standardized on any one technology yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah... I'm rambling on several topics at once, but my answer would be close to 0%.

-Scott

[charity]

I read a post on the Kiva Fellows Blog that really made my day today:
http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/06/26/what-if-microfinance-really-does-work/
I literally started tearing up    Maybe it's just one of those days   but it was so nice to hear someone say "Microfinance is working wonderfully up here in the Andes!"...."what we are doing here is working.  We have no reason to apologize for it.  In fact, you should be honored to be a part of it."  Sometimes it's just nice to see someone on the ground say that

[mejane]

 
Jane

[closermann]

This by way of a thank you.  I stumbled upon a recent talk from Ted.com which described the democratisation of philanthropy.
http://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_fulton_you_are_the_future_of_philanthropy.html
Then comes this post.

I read a post on the Kiva Fellows Blog that really made my day today:
http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/06/26/what-if-microfinance-really-does-work/

Thank you to Charity for the “heads up” and thank you to Kiva Fellow Suzy for your skilful use of time management to bring us an excellent example which affirmed that our own humble efforts have not been in vain 
Phil