news from E-bony about situation in Kenya (formerly "confused about journal...")

[Guest]

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[Diane R]

Per the note from Maina, "Most of the fighting and destruction occurred in slum areas in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Kericho in Rift Valley."  A huge number of my Kenya loans (and those of the Mark Agwonah Fund) were in Kibera Slums, in Nairobi.  I am going through those loans now to pinpoint locations, but given that the Journal entry above was applied even to the Maasai women I have partnered with in Maasai Mara, we can assume the effects are far-reaching.  We received several emails from Irene Kamau of ActionNow:Kenya last week, and she reported that a sizeable fraction of their clients were affected, but it sounded as if perhaps fewer than EbF's clients.  She was not certain about everyone's situation, though, and was still trying to take inventory of all their clients.  I am certain they did not escape without being affected, but perhaps we can hope for some miracles and fewer than 80% of their clients in riot-torn areas.  I think we will have to await more reports for the facts, though.

I am, in the background now between clicks for DWB/MSF, making a collage of my EbF partners in those affected areas, so I can keep them even closer in my thoughts.  I may post it here once it is completed.

--Diane.

[Dottie b]

They've got over 177 comments now.

Dottie B

[KathyN-V]

And my comment joined them, just a few minutes after I got the news from Jessica.  Like some of you here, I keep voting for Doctors Without Borders, and like so many of the people posting comments, I would like to forgive my loan to my Kenyan business partner.  I wish that there was some way of finding out about her well-being, because my Kiva partners are much more than mere faces of a web page to me and my family.  We know their stories by heart, and cheer whenever one of them is successful enough to make a loan payment (we purposely choose people who probably cannot repay their loans, as life has stacked so many things against them). 

I hope that there is some way for the Kiva administration people to allow the lenders to forgive their portions of loans made in Kenya.  I can only imagine my partner, if she and her business have survived, going to pay her monthly installment and finding out that she no longer owes anything, and that burden, at least, has been lifted from her.  I suppose it is too much to hope that we could funnel some money to our business partners to help them rebuild their lives and businesses after the smoke clears.

Kathy N-V

[Milford]

If anything, the re-financing that the MFI is talking about will probably result in some new loans offered with Kiva's (ours) support. I don't have any Kenya loans in my portfolio, but I'll be honored to get some that'll support re-building some lives down there.

The news of the election and the riots reached Norway as well, but there was nothing about the aftermath, surely no brutal news as these. To me, then, Kiva doesn't just make me care more about the third world because of the personal connections, but also, as it appears, functions as an independent news source.

[Jill]

Hey Ulli,
      This is your choice, of course, but if you wanted to change the Title of this Thread to reflect, perhaps, a bit more clearly, that the thread is about Kiva's Kenyan Field Partner Writes About The Impact of The (Kenyan) Riots On Our Entrepreneurs (Borrowers, whatever) or something like that, all you need to do is log in, go to your original post where you started this thread, click on "Modify" and then change the name.  It's not a big deal that you do that, but it may help Guests and others get to this thread faster, etc.

To Everybody Else, Too:
       I just woke up and saw, at the time, that there were 48 Loans currently posted at Kiva.  When I put my computer to sleep, last night, there were quite a few loans up then, as well.  It's strange how everything changes, almost as if in an instant.  Instead of just feeling a lot of relief and pleasure at seeing all those new loans finally, happily, being posted, I found that my mind and my heart went immediately to our Kenyan Field Partners and our people there.  I realized last night as I was clicking out, that one of the reasons we may be seeing fewer loans being posted over at Kiva is because it's quite probable that we won't be seeing many (any?) from our Kenyan Field Partners for quite some time, that is, unless some got started, were sent on their way into the pipeline, before this whole tragedy started unfolding.


      I am as sure as I can be about most things that in addition to us KivaFriend lenders who have Kenyan loans expressing our desire to "forgive"/ wipe out those loans and making sure that that actually happens, to the extent we are able to make that a reality,  I am sure that we, as the wonderfully caring group of people that we've shown ourselves to be, will try to come up with some way, whether it's through the creation of a special fund/s or whatever.....
   

           that we will try to figure out some way to try to help our people over there.  While whatever way that may be will unlikely be as much as a number of us wish it could be, anything that we might come up with will be a wonderful gesture and MESSAGE that we feel like we're in this, with them, together, and that we want the people over there, in Kenya, to feel our solidarity with them and our caring.
And that feels very important, that we be able to convey that.

[Booma]

Would it be possible or feasible to start a Kenyan loan fund now, so that when there are people needing funds, they are immediately available?  We wouldn't be able to chose to whom we want to loan, but would be told to whom our funds went when they were disbursed.  I haven't really thought this through and don't understand the intricacies of how all this might work, but perhaps it would help even a few people to get back on their feet sooner.

Carole

[Sherri]

What heart-breaking news to wake up to. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the Kenyans affected by this.

[Jill]

        I just got back from posting and from reading many of the other comments that people from all over the world made in response to the Journal entry from Ebony. http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=comment&id=2720&ent=35296 It is incredibly poignant. 

         
         I am close to certain that Jessica and Matt never could have envisioned, when they first conceived and then gave birth to Kiva, that they never ever could have imagined the strength and power of the connections that would be established among people from all over the world, thanks to their brainandheartchild.  It, truly, is a beautiful thing, and in those connections, and in the sentiments that are being felt and expressed by those same people from all over, we can only feel hope for this, our too troubled world.

       
         Since it was but one of now, over 244 comments, I'm not sure that anyone will notice, but when I, just now, added my own comment to the collection, I cited this discussion going on here at the Forum and alerted anyone who might be interested that we, as a community, would probably be working on some means or another to try, collectively as a group, to reach out and help.

[cpbailey]

I would like to suggest that we let the partners in Kenya manage the loan collection or forgiveness as they see fit.  If individuals find the loans are forgiven without much regard to ability to repay, it could set a precedent for the future.  This could harm the partners' authority and ability to collect for small scare unfortunate but not insurmountable events.  Specifically, I am very proud of one of my Ecuadorian women who had her television for the video game business stolen.  She decided instead of getting a new system to go with the now missing television that she would sell clothing or other supplies with the new funds.  She managed to repay the loan despite her loss.  If in the past, she had seen forgiveness of loans which were for some no less inconvenient, she might assume that it applied to her as well.

Further, let's remember that there are many sources of loan funds for the partners.  It would seem very arbitrary that Kiva loans were forgiven regardless of merit while other loans, perhaps with locale people funding, were pursued with some persistence.  The local funding sources WOULD want their money back, and might need it to restart their lives.

Let's let nature take its course, cut some slack to the partner for its late payments and defaults which are very likely.  I also hope that they not penalize the borrowers for any defaults which the loans became insurmountable.  Some of the loans may be reworked; some of the borrowers may be little affected, and many may default.  

Meanwhile, maybe we can figure out a way to mitigate the situations for the worst off.  It seems that we set up little funds and sources for Mama Mark, the lady in Viet Nam, and the school.  Maybe a more regular funding source with a way to allocate to whatever comes up would be a nice way to go.  There could be fundraisers (calendar?, notecards, See's candy or whatever).  Then if something came up, the fund could match donations up to a predetermined amount for a given cause.  Just a thought.  If there is some momentum with a project for fundraising, I would be up for volunteering.

By the way, I thought the artwork of the Masai woman was wonderful.  THAT would make a nice notecard or art for framing.

Colette

[Sherri]

Colette - very well said. I agree completely!