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Showing 1-25 of 44 results
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Same Continent, Different Worlds: Part 2
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 2 January 2012
By Kiva Fellows in Africa, KF16 Compiled by Tejal Desai Ow de body! Are Sierra Leone and Rwanda still danger zones? What challenges do Ugandans most commonly face? Kiva Fellows from KF16 bring you another unique perspective from the diverse and vast continent of Africa! We patched together an overview of each of our placement countries that includes: basic socioeconomic stats, common stereotypes (and to what extent they are true or false), greatest challenges, most common loan products at our respective field partners, and the borrowers' most common use of their profits.
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60 Tips from Kiva Fellows
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 30 December 2011
Compiled by Kate Bennett, KF16 Peru The sixteenth class of Kiva Fellows has all but left the field- but we're by no means done talking about our experiences. We've collectively spent 422 weeks in the field (just over 8 years!) and worked an estimated 16,650 hours at Kiva field partners around the world.
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Update from the Field: Loan Officer Training, a Photographic Journey + Kiva Gift Cards
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 12 December 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda December has long been the month of annual awards, looking back and frantic searches for presents. The Kiva fellows blog is no exception to this rule: Share the fellows' memories by taking a photographic journey through Sierra Leone and watching a video about a typical day of a fellow conducting loan officer trainings. Learn about some incredible women in Costa Rica, who received a Woman Entrepreneur Award from Kiva's field partner, Fundación Mujer.
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Updates from the Field: Autonomy, Sierra Leone and the 2011 Kiva Love Tour
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 5 December 2011
Compiled by Kate Bennett, KF16, Peru This week's updates come at a time of change for Fellows around the world. As the holidays near, Fellows prepare to phase out of their current placements, move on to the next ones, and tie up loose ends with their Kiva Field Partners.
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Malaria Dreams: The True Kiva Fellowship Experience
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 2 December 2011
By Tejal Desai, KF16, Sierra Leone As my Kiva fellowship winds down, I reflect on the memorable journey I’ve been privileged to experience through the Kiva Fellows Program as a member of its 16th class. Through personal revelations and humbling lessons in adaptation, microfinance work, cultural differences (and a unique incidence of malaria), I’ve grown attached to beautiful Sierra Leone.
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Update from the Field: Adapting for Borrowers by Borrowers, Microinsurance +SKFL
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 28 November 2011
Compiled by Jim Burke, KF16, Nicaragua This week’s Fellows Blog focuses on adaptability: Adapting microinsurance to poor households in Indonesia, an MFI in Turkey adapts to the needs of women entrepreneurs, a multifaceted borrower in Nepal adapts to market pressures, and a Kiva Fellow adapts to changing expectations. In a continuation of The Stuff Kiva [...]
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Questions from the Field: Why Do We Lend, What’s a Kiva Fellowship + How does Microfinance Support Green & Agricultural Development?
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 21 November 2011
Compiled by Kate Bennett, KF16, Peru Last week's stories from the field elucidate readers on questions far and wide, and pose a few questions of their own: what is a Wandering Kiva Fellow, and is a Kiva Fellowship right for you? How can microloans support a green or agriculturally sustainable economy? In a country bouncing back from a civil war, how can international aid and microfinance help (or hurt)?
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The Double-Edged Sword: Sierra Leone’s Battle Against Poverty
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 16 November 2011
By Tejal Desai, KF16, Sierra Leone Aid: What does it mean for a country recovering from a devastating decade-long civil war that killed over 50,000 of its people? And what does it mean for microfinance organizations that aim to loosen the leash from dependency and push for sustainability? After taking an okada ride through Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, one may find the presence of international aid ubiquitous, and acting as a double-edged sword in the fight against poverty.
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Update from the Field: Expanding the Reach of Microfinance, Downsizing Development + Why We Kiva
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 31 October 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda This week, you have no fewer than 14 new articles to choose from on the Kiva fellows blog: Let the fellows take you along on borrower visits across the world. Learn how Kiva field partners expand the reach of microfinance in Rwanda, fill the microfinance donut hole in Sierra Leone and improve social performance in Uganda. Find out what poverty is like in urban Tajikistan and rural Burkina Faso. Get inspired by one of the creative ways to bring renewable energy to the developing world in the form of a soccer ball.
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The Donut Hole Conundrum + Mamoud’s Story
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 24 October 2011
By Tejal Desai, KF16, Sierra Leone Earlier this year, a Kiva fellow in KF14, David McNeill, wrote about his interaction with a Sierra Leonean taxi driver, and addressed a hot issue in microfinance: the financial donut hole.
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Update from the Field: Loan Use, Agriculture Loans + Stuff Kiva Fellows Like
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 10 October 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda This week on the Kiva fellows blog: Hop on a poda-poda or an okada to try out an adventurous way to get around Sierra Leone. Find out why loan use in Tajikistan is not as straightforward as you may think. Learn how the principle of "trust but verify" is applied in Georgia. Explore the clever efforts of an Ecuadorian Kiva partner to craft an agricultural loan product that is appropriate to farmers' needs. Welcome Kiva's new field partner, VisionFund Cambodia. Learn how village banking works in Ecuador.
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Stuff Kiva Fellows Like
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 7 October 2011
Compiled by Jim Burke, KF16, Nicaragua We are Kiva Fellows. This is the stuff we like. Here is an insider (often critical, or satirical but always true!) view of what it means to be a Kiva Fellow and promote access to financial services around the world. From alpaca fur to FSSs to ziplock bags, these [...]
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Adventures Chasing Poda-Podas + Hitchhiking in Freetown
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 3 October 2011
In Freetown, Sierra Leone, a range of transportation options welcomes you in every street corner, each option varying in safety, price, comfort, and convenience, and a few requiring some degree of hitchhiking. Being a hitchhiking and Freetown transportation novice myself, I had no idea what to expect when local friends and colleagues encouraged me to flag down random drivers and hop into unfamiliar vehicles to travel around town.
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Update from the Field: Starting Capital, Development Levels + Adventurous Borrower Visits
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 26 September 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda This week on the Kiva fellows blog, start your journey in Indonesia and read about some early lessons of a Kiva fellow.
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Same Rung of the Ladder?
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 23 September 2011
Eric Rindal - KF16 - Bolivia After Jeffrey Sachs started talking about ladders, rungs, and poverty, many wondered if there would be an end to poverty. The way he saw it was that if a developing country could just make it to that first “rung” on the ladder, they would reach the global economy and lift themselves from poverty. He augmented this with “clinical economics,” treating developing countries like patients by offering a unique diagnosis, by properly addressing a country’s need.
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Update from the Field: Going Pilot to Active, Meeting Borrowers + Technology and Social Performance
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 19 September 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF16, Rwanda It has been a busy week for bloggers. The 16th class of Kiva fellows (KF16) hits the ground running and invites you to share their first experiences in their host countries across the globe. Arrive in Georgia just in time for harvest season. Continue to Sierra Leone to watch a new Kiva field partner go from pilot to active. Jump out of a plane in Rwanda - but not without a few parachutes - and learn more about agricultural loans. Bump into a Kiva borrower in Ecuador. Travel to Burkina Faso - a poor country rich in culture.
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Full Hearts, Engines Ready: Going Pilot to Active in Freetown
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 13 September 2011
By Tejal Desai, KF 16, Sierra Leone Just over a week ago, I hopped on the back of an okada (motorbike) to head to my first day as a Kiva Fellow at the BRAC Sierra Leone country office in Freetown. I felt like the giddy new kid on the first day of school, equipped with my oversized backpack, thick binder of training materials, and colossal water bottle. I couldn't wait to dive into my fellowship, learn about BRAC’s work in Sierra Leone, promote sustainability, and meet the amazing people who implement and utilize BRAC’s services.
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Update from the Field: Cooking Classes, Autarky + Social Performance
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 15 August 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo This week on the Kiva fellows blog, take a cooking class with a Kiva borrower in Ecuador and learn how to make two mouthwatering local specialties: quimbalitos and tamales. Continue on to Sierra Leone to see how autarky is the goal of Kiva fellowships as well as micro loans. Then return to Ecuador to watch a video about traditional dances, find out about the feeling of "saudade" and reflect on the juxtaposition of poverty and prosperity. Finally, learn how a social performance study can be constructed in Chile.
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Of Autarky, Redundancy, and Giving
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 11 August 2011
By Eric Rindal – KF15 – Sierra Leone “Soon you’re not going to be here anymore, and I need to start doing things for myself,” Mbalu, the Kiva Coordinator at BRAC SL, earnestly said to me. One of my main objectives here in Sierra Leone has been to finalize Mbalu’s orientation of writing the Kiva [...]
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Update from the Field: Working Animals, Green Microfinance + The Ends of the Earth
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 1 August 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo This week, learn how microfinance could help working animals and their wild cousins in Senegal. Find out more about pigs in Indonesia and how pig waste can be put to good use with biogas digesters. Then understand more about the infrastructure difficulties facing a Kiva partner in Sierra Leone.
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To the Ends of the Earth
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 30 July 2011
By Eric Rindal – Sierra Leone – KF15 I am writing this blog by hand today as I sit at my desk in Makeni, Sierra Leone. There is no power for the whole office. When I ask, “isn’t there National Power from the grid?” people just laugh (it only comes on at night for a [...]
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The Externalities of it All
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 18 July 2011
by Eric Rindal – KF15 – Sierra Leone “What has changed in your business since you took out your loan?” I ask Kiva borrower Fatmata as we stand amongst the whirling crowd in a Freetown market. “Oh, very much, everything has changed,” she says as her eyes quickly sway toward the crowd, then back to [...]
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Updates from the Field: Mosquito Nets, Rock Climbing + Clearing the Air
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 13 June 2011
Compiled by Kate Bennett, KF15, Ecuador Kiva’s Field Partners are spread far and wide, from Nicaragua to Nepal, Afghanistan to America. As we lend $25 to a borrower in a distant land, we try to imagine what his or her life is like. This is one of Kiva’s greatest successes, in fact: it gives us [...]
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Mosquito Nets: Subjective Risk.
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 7 June 2011
By Eric Rindal – KF15 – Sierra Leone Mosquito nets are an essential part of most, if not all, Kiva Fellows’ experience. From Senegal, to Ecuador, to the Philippians, we all need them; in fact, it would be crazy to sleep without one. I find my faith in these perforated cocoons may actually be deeper [...]
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Update from the Field: Personal Connections, Supply and Demand + A Culinary Excursion
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 23 May 2011
Compiled by Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo As the 14th class passes the baton to the 15th class, the Kiva fellows are sharing their final thoughts and first impressions. Be inspired by the personal connections Kiva creates between lenders and borrowers in Nepal and Sierra Leone. Find out how a phenomenal harvest can prevent farmers in Nicaragua from repaying their loans. Discover the creative ways of assessing credit worthiness used in Uganda and around the globe. Sample local customs and cuisine, while reading about the Day of the Child in Mexico and taking a culinary excursion in Liberia.
