Showing 1-22 of 22 results
-
Updates from the Field: Roads, Remittances + the “Little Paris” of Togo
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 27 June 2011
Last week our internationally-scattered Kiva Fellows introduced us to some of the men and women that compose the sixty countries in which Kiva works.
-
Paving the Way to the Future (Part 2): Road Construction and Its Effects on Microfinance in Togo
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 26 June 2011
By Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo Lomé is under construction. In fact, all of Togo is under construction. This is what I heard when I first arrived in this small West African country two weeks ago.
-
Paving the Way to the Future (Part 1): Bad Roads, Transportation Costs and Microfinance in Togo
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 20 June 2011
By Kathrin Gerner, KF15, Togo It becomes apparent with every new rainfall now that the rain season has started in Togo: Roads are the arteries that carry the lifeblood of the economy. They transport goods, employees and clients, and they provide shelf space for the countless street vendors. Mostly unpaved, however, the roads of Lomé stand no chance in the face of torrential downpours. With few drains to take the water out of the city and the soil already saturated, they turn into a vast, difficult to navigate network of rivers and lakes.
-
I Am Happiest When…
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 27 August 2010
I began writing this blog on a scrap piece of paper just north of the Burkinabé/Ghanaian border. I had spent my morning walking across the border carrying a 40-pound pack and subsequently spending far too much money on a taxi into the nearest town. My Kiva Fellowship had ended a week and a half earlier, and I was sitting in a hot, dirty hotel room with a concrete floor, grimy walls, and inconsistent electricity. I was desperate for entertainment.
-
A Kiva Fellow’s Scrap Book
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 20 August 2010
By Leah Gage, KF 10 in Ukraine & KF11 in Togo Today is my last day as a Kiva Fellow. Kiva Fellows Class number 10 (or KF10) took me to Zaporozhye, Ukraine where I worked with Kiva’s field partner HOPE Ukraine; KF11 brought me here to Lomé, Togo, where I work with two [...]
-
World Cup Reports from Kiva Fellows Around the World
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 30 June 2010
Kiva Fellows share their World Cup experiences from Mongolia, Rwanda, Mexico, Bolivia, Togo, Sri Lanka, Chile and Kyrgyzstan
-
Getting Our Groove On in West Africa
Blog: Honey Service Year - 8 May 2010
Life without music would be meaningless.” - Niezsche [Taken from a marquee billboard advertising the Ghana Music Awards 2010 One night, as we were wandering through our Asylum Down neighborhood in Accra, we heard some great reggae bumping from a small shop with a corrugated metal roof. Being who we are, and feeling the ongoing inspiration of our portable hard-drive of collected music, we popped
-
Lomé, Togo: 50th Anniversary
Blog: Honey Service Year - 29 April 2010
written by Nathan Protests in the street on the 50th Anniversary of Independence On the day of our arrival in Lomé, Saturday, we saw mass protests on the boulevard. Every Saturday in Lomé, at least 60,000 citizens rise in opposition to the entrenched oligarchy here and march through the streets. Nearly every weekend these protests are begun with song and dance and ended with teargas and
-
Lomé, Togo: West Africa
Blog: Honey Service Year - 23 April 2010
We are lucky to have arrived just a few days before the auspicious occasion of the 50th anniversary of Togolaise independence. But, luck in this instance is a learning experience to further our understanding and impressions of Africa, to get a slight interpretation of the massive affects of 400 years of colonial rule, and to explore, for ourselves, the ways that Togo has had impacted our lives in
-
The Red Notebook and the Glue That Holds the Whole Story Together
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 3 April 2010
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo Sleep-deprived and over-heated, I sat in front of the fan in the loan officers’ room. I had been waiting for a loan officer at the WAGES branch office in Hédzranawoé for over an hour and sat unmoving as the room buzzed with activity all around me. Loan officers ran in and out, clients sat down and stood up, phones rang and calls were made, passbooks opened and closed, pencils scratched paper, sweat stained foreheads. I looked at the loan officer sitting across the desk opposite me.
-
“Do You Know How To Run?”
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 15 March 2010
On Thursday March 4th, the second Togolese presidential elections were held since the death of President Eyadéma Gnassingbé in 2005. After 38 years of uninterrupted rule, his son Faure assumed the presidency. Shortly thereafter, he held superfluous elections that resulted in a “democratic” confirmation of his leadership.
-
The Case of the Faceless Lender
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 20 February 2010
Last week, I spent two mornings making the rounds of six WAGES branch offices that participate in Kiva. Accompanied by the Kiva Coordinator, I met with loan officers and branch directors to refresh their memories on the importance of transparency, clarity of photos, and detailed profile information. Most of all, I wanted to give Kiva a human face. While Kiva lenders are well aware of the person-to-person (P2P) connections Kiva aims to establish, the direction of this gaze is often one-sided.
-
Begging – A Sign of Development?
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 15 February 2010
Whether at home or abroad no one likes to see people begging for money. In the countries where most Kiva Fellows come from it’s a sad sign of social dysfunction and a failure to provide adequate opportunities for everyone. But in the developing world could it actually be a sign of progress? After all, if a country can support begging, then it must be generating income beyond mere subsistence.
-
Looking at Microfinance Through Rose-Coloured Glasses
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 29 January 2010
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo There is a lot of hype surrounding microfinance. For some, microfinance is an effective tool used to promote large-scale poverty alleviation. For others, it is simply considered a way for moderately poor individuals to better their own situations. If you’re reading this blog, you likely fit somewhere on this spectrum of [...]
-
“Il faut profiter, ein?”
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 15 January 2010
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo It’s amazing how identity can be so malleable. In a matter of hours, a person can be transformed from local to foreigner, fluent to fumbling, familiar to fascinating, and even from black to white. Anyone who has ever travelled even just a couple hours outside their hometown has experienced this shift. The [...]
-
When the Road Ends…
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 1 January 2010
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo Picture yourself on a bike riding along a beach. Nice image, isn’t it? Now, swap the bike for a motorcycle fishtailing in the sand and replace the crashing waves with revving engines and honking cars. Add dust in your eyes, the smell of exhaust in your nose, and about 30 degrees of [...]
-
Holiday Greetings – KF9 on Christmas
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 25 December 2009
By KF9, All Over The World Merry Christmas! This holiday season Kiva Fellows are celebrating Christmas all over the world, in all sorts of different ways. Whether it be traveling, feasting, or working hard to bring you some additional Kiva magic over the holidays, it’s safe to say we’re all thankful to be serving as Kiva [...]
-
A Small Fish in a Small Pond
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 17 December 2009
By Taylor Akin, KF9, Togo As I sat in Charles de Gaulle airport waiting for my flight to Lomé, I had already begun to feel out of place. My hair was carelessly sitting around my shoulders, I was wearing old yoga pants and a new pair of Converse, and I was munching on my mother’s half-squished [...]
-
On the Road
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 16 November 2009
By Nick Malouin, KF9, Togo There’s something about traveling at high speeds in Africa that allows the mind to open up and do its best thinking. Maybe with the pot holes and daily frustrations left behind the brain can finally concentrate on something else. I had such an experience on a recent weekend trip to Lomé. [...]
-
Tuning Out and Coming To…in a Chicken Coop
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 28 October 2009
By Jessica Chervin, KF9 Togo Yesterday evening, West Africa made me giddy. I have been in Togo for almost five months, and in West Africa for almost nine. Here, my senses are never neutral. The most lovely moments are tempered by inconvenience. My daily moto rides to and from Microfund are at once thrilling and relaxing, but [...]
-
How I Got Here
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 27 October 2009
Since arriving in Togo last week, a lot of my colleagues at FECECAV have asked how I actually got from Toronto to Kpalimé. Luckily, ten minutes into my trip I pulled out my trusty flip cam, which every Kiva Fellow has been given (thank you Flip!), and started shooting. The following 3-minute video is a [...]
-
Signing Off from Senegal
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 26 May 2009
My memories of the last eight months away from home are a jumbled mass of color, freedom, fear, patience, frustration, and energy – raw, shifting memories that have not yet arranged themselves into neat, packageable stories that I can pull from the shelf at parties when I get home. I have tested my sense of self [...]
Showing 1-22 of 22 results
