Education loan?

[Guest]

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[Buchanan Family]

I thought the recent pictures posted by Esperanza were interesting.  All are similar to the school loan picture in the last post showing the women standing up behind a table each holding their portion of the loan in CASH!  I wonder if they're supposed to be waving it around and looking happy? 

I suppose it's proof that they received their cold hard cash...

[Diane R]

I thought it was more likely they are holding their monthly repayment, and the photo was taken during a payment meeting?

 

--Diane.

[Mona]

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=78449&_tpos=1&_tpg=1


Carmen Xiomara is a single and positive woman living with her parents in Sabana Grande de Boyá, a community located in Monte Plata, about two hours northeast of Santo Domingo. She’s a primary school teacher. To diversify her income, she also sells women’s clothing in her neighborhood. Carmen Xiomara is a good dressmaker. She’d like to have her own sewing workshop, but she doesn’t have the required materials nor does she have enough money to purchase them. She’ll keep saving money so that someday she can have her workshop. Carmen feels strong concern for children who don’t have the opportunity to attend school. She plans to expand a small organization she started recently with other teachers. Beginning next January, she expects to receive funds from different social organizations and utilize them to improve education and alleviate hunger of unprivileged children. We hope that Carmen will succeed in her endeavor, since there are many children that need this help.  Carmen has requested a loan to buy more clothing to retail during the holiday’s period. She says that she’ll do her utmost to repay it quickly so that she can take a larger loan very soon. Carmen will receive her loan together with the following women: Segunda Mejia Javier, who sells used and new clothing; Teodora Cabrera, who sells jewelry; Yenni Isabel Peralta Garcia, who sells footwear; In the picture, Carmen Xiomara is first on the left.

5 months loan from FSMA, Dominican Republic (4*)
1225 $ left to fund

[Diane R]

Editha Figueroa Quenhua

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=75779


Editha belongs to the Mujeres al Progreso ("Women for Progress") community bank in the Peruvian "departamento" of Ancash. She is 39 years old and partnered with 2 children. Like her husband, she's a teacher, but she started her own home-based school; she also opened a small grocery in her house in Acobamba, across from the Acobamba chapel. She says that the business has grown steadily since she started it with a S/.1,000 [1,000 Peruvian soles] loan. Edith has now invested about six- to eight-thousand soles in the business even though she's often entrusted it to her mother because she has so little time. She adds that the business has greatly helped her family because when they need something, they get it from the business.  With this S/.2,300 loan, to be repaid in 8 installments, Editha will buy "panetones" [a traditional fruitcake-like bread] for the upcoming Christmas season.  Editha says that she would like to attend workshops, as much to improve her personal life as her business, even though she doesn't have much spare time.


8 month loan from Manuela Ramos/CrediMUJER (5*, Peru)
$125 left to fund  (5 days of funding left)

[Mona]

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=80967&_tpos=4&_tpg=1


Reyna is 32 years old, lives in a neighborhood in the capital of Managua called Laureles Norte, is married to an electrical technician and has a 4-year-old daughter. Her future plans for her family include finishing the construction of their home, fixing it up, and they hope to be able to save some money so that their daughter can have a future. Reyna works as a teacher is three schools and three different schedules in the capital. She has five years of experience but works three jobs in order to have more income. Her career objective is to continue providing her services as a teacher in other areas of the education field. Thanks to the loans from Afodenic she will be able to purchase construction materials such as cement, iron, cement block, and brick, allowing her to make her house concrete instead of the current material which is zinc. She hopes to have a dignified and safe home for her family.

9 months loan from AFODENIC, Nicaragua (4*), 525 $ left to fund

[RichardF]

Okay, I couldn't take it!  I made a loan to Reyna in honor of my daughter of the same name, but spelled differently. 

[Mona]

This is not only a very nice application for a new loan but also a wonderful update for the loan that was taken out before. 

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=82140&_tpos=1&_tpg=1


The members of this loan group are all teachers at the Ahmadiyya Secondary School in Makeni. The school was founded in 1984 by the Ahmadiyya Mission. Today, it has a total of 364 pupils with a staff of 10 teachers. The school carries a lot of pride for its ability to resurrect itself from the ruins of the civil war to become one of the most enviable schools in town.

This is the second time teachers from Ahmadiyya have received a loan from SMT. The previous loan was a great success to the first borrowers, hence three more staff have decided to join their colleagues this time around to borrow from SMT. Hawanatu Sesay, for example, was able to start a small business using the previous loan. Today, her business serves as a supplementary source of income to her. Pa Lansana invested his money in agriculture and this has also served as an additional source of income to him outside of the classroom.

Fifty-one year old Naziru Coker (on the left in the photo) is the principal at the school. He was born in Taiama, in the Moyamba district in southern Sierra Leone. He is married with five children. Two of the children are in junior secondary school, two are in senior secondary school and one is in college. His wife is also currently studying at the university. Naziru will use his loan to purchase house building materials, specifically cement for bricks and iron rods. He’ll also hire four or five laborers to do the work. He wants to build an apartment adjacent to his home consisting of two rooms and a parlor. Naziru travels to Freetown every weekend where his family resides. He’ll purchase the building materials there where the prices are lower relative to Makeni. A bag of cement, for example, will cost him 35,000 Leones (about USD$11.50) versus 45,000 to 50,000 in Makeni.

Government salaries are usually quite small for teachers, thus making teaching an unattractive profession for many whose primary motivation is money. Many choose other jobs over teaching because of the small salary, thus starving the field of qualified personnel to teach the children. The few who remain in the classroom have to find other ways of making ends meet. The vast majority of them engage in either business or agriculture or they provide extra tutorial classes for the children (although this is a practice the government is trying to stop). Needless to say, loans from SMT are a great help to the teachers in order to boost their businesses or invest in something productive. Many want to do more schooling, but cannot afford the cost. Some want to buy pieces of furniture, but their monthly salary is not enough to let them do so. With a loan, they will be able to meet some of these needs. And with their monthly salaries, they can easily repay the loan via a payroll deduction type of system.

In 2003, after the rebel forces left the town, Ahmadiyya school could only boast of having five teachers, thus making the school’s performance on national exams very poor. But with the intervention of the new principal, Naziru Coker, Ahmadiyya today has a total of 10 staff. In last year’s national exams (also known as BECE – Basic Education Certification Examination) the school had two pupils who obtained some of the highest marks on the exams. This was a clear statement to bigger schools whose pupils could not score such high grades.

In the sporting arena, Ahamdiyya Secondary School is the current holder of the soccer competition trophy organized by the Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports for Junior Secondary Schools. They defeated the AL-Harrkan Secondary School. Because of all their hard work and dedication to both academics and extra-curricular activities, the school was upgraded to a senior secondary school by the Ministry of Education last academic year.

9 months loan from SMT, Sierra Leone (4*), 3150 $ left to fund

[Jan & John]

I am always amazed at how much I learn just poking around at Kiva and then surfing off...

this new loan of ours is for a young man with 'high spirits'...
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=79544

"The young Modesto is requesting financing for his third credit to invest in improving his home (building a room). He works as a sales executive in CURACAO for three years. He is young, responsible, honest and a hardworker with high spirits. He lives in the zone number 5 in Nueva Guinea, and currently he is studying in his 4th year in Business Administration in the University URACCAN Recinto Nueva Guinea. Although he does not have children, he takes care of his parents and the household expenses because they are people of limited economic resources and depend on the salary that he earns. He is a model son for all of the Nicaraguans who love and care for their parents, his dream is to continue studying and have job security to help his family. In previous loans he proved his capability and punctuality in paying his dues."

So I thought I would check out this University ...
This project began in 1977 and ended in September of 2002. It was project in collaboration with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.  It linked CERLAC/York University with the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN), founded in 1992.
The main goals of the project were:
    *      To strengthen URACCAN's capacity to develop the human resources of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, in order to meet the region's needs in the areas of poverty alleviation, sustainable development, community development, and autonomous governance; and 
    *      To strengthen the knowledge base and research capacities of York University and CERLAC with regard to the developmental and socio-cultural issues of the region.

I found this so very interesting and then went on to find even more Kiva loans where borrowers are students at this University.  I even found one for a teacher at the University that is still funding.

I always wanted to go to University and it is such a blessing to be able to help someone else.
jan

[Dottie b]

Jan, how can they be students there if the project ended in 2002?

Dottie B

[Jan & John]

Jan, how can they be students there if the project ended in 2002?

Dottie B

It appears the project began at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, at York University in Canada who then then led a joint project in Nicaragua which formed the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua (URACCAN), founded in 1992. 

The project ended in 2002 but the University appears still going strong.

I found this information in various places...

"This project website has been re-designed and edited to provide a summary of its main challenges, activities, and achievements, in the hope that such information may be useful to future projects of a similar nature involving Canadian university co-operation abroad."

"The 2001-2005 URACCAN Strategic Plan Mission Statement marked an important step in defining a more profound understanding of its role."

"URACCAN has four campuses - at Bilwi/Kamla (Puerto Cabezas), Bluefields, Nueva Guinea, and Siuna - and extension programs in Waspan, Bonanza Rosita, Karawala, and the Pearl Lagoon. Its original enrollment consisted of 120 public school teachers who were beginning a teacher upgrading program. By 2000 URACCAN's enrollment had surpassed the figure of 4,000 regular and sessional students, a level sustained in 2001 and 2002. In 2002 the university had 187 teachers, 52 of them full time and 135 part time. "

This sounds like a wonderful success story to me.  I found 2008 updates for the University, however, sadly they are all in Spanish.  http://www.uraccan.edu.ni/

jan