Turning Wine Into Wherewithal

If you're in the New York City area, join our New York lending team as it hosts its 3rd Annual Wine Tasting Fundraiser next weekend.

Photo: From last year's event 

On Saturday, February 4th Kiva's vibrant New York lending community will gather to drink, discuss and donate.


Drink: Six different wines from countries where Kiva borrowers live and work.
Discuss: Talk about how you lend and goals for the new year, and hear firsthand from Kiva fellows about what it's like to work in the field.
Donate: 10% of the funds raised will be donated to Kiva. The rest will be added to the New York lending team's fund for future lending.
The event will be at Bottle Rocket Wine & Spirit located at 5 West 19th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues). For more information, visit the event's page: Wine Tasting Event.


Attendees please send us your photos and tweet us @Kiva!

Please Stand by

We are experiencing some technical difficulties with some of the photos and videos on recent blog posts. We are working to correct this problem. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Welcoming MTZ, Kiva’s First Mobile Payments Field Partner

“A Cashless Africa.”

 

This is a big statement.  Yet, it is the simply stated dream of MTZ, Kiva’s first mobile payments Field Partner, located in Zambia.

MTZ is a mobile money/transactions organization that allows individuals to send and receive money over their phones.  This model relies on a distributed network of agents, known within MTZ as Champion Agents.  Fund transfers are made by converting cash into electronic value at one location, and converting the electronic value back into cash at another. Take a look at the way MTZ explains the process to its customers.

Kiva’s partnership with MTZ will give Champion Agents access to loans to fund fixed asset purchases, and set up expenses and working capital float to increase the size of the network of Champion Agents.  

In additional to being Kiva’s first mobile payments Field Partner, MTZ is also one of Kiva’s first non-traditional Field Partners, continuing our cycle of innovation.  For Zambians, especially the poor, mobile money presents a new method of sending funds that is potentially cheaper, more accessible, and more secure than money transfer services, bank transfers, or requests of friends to carry cash on buses.  Mobile money has the potential to significantly push the boundaries of financial inclusion, in particular, by allowing poor individuals to securely store savings on their phone, receive insurance payouts, and receive/repay on loans.  In recognition of their efforts, Kiva has awarded MTZ the “Innovation” and “Entrepreneurial Support” Social Performance Badges.

We are excited to welcome MTZ in partnership with Kiva, and to welcome MTZ’s first Kiva funded Champion Agents to the website!  For more information on MTZ check out their website (including their guiding principles), and for more information on their partnership with Kiva please visit the Field Partner page.

Passport Series: Tanzania: Part 3: A Borrower Tells Her Story

Our Field Partner, Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd., just shared with us an inspiring success story of one of their borrowers. Her name is Mwanaisha Katunzi and she recently spoke with Tujijenge staff about her experiences as an entrepreneur. We are delighted to share her story here with the Kiva Community.

Mwanaisha Katunzi in her store in Bunda District, Tanzania. Photo Credit: Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd.

Mwanaisha Katunzi has been a Tujijenge borrower since 2010. She lives in the Bunda District which is in Mara Region of Tanzania. She is 48 years of age and is married with 2 children who are in secondary school. Mwanaisha explained how she decided to become an entrepreneur;

“My husband is also a micro entrepreneur, he owns a used television shop. He buys them in Zanzibar and sells them here at Bunda. I realized that the money my husband makes does not meet family needs so I decided rather than depending fully on his income, I had better engage myself in small businesses to support my husband and so together confront life’s hardships.”

 In 2008, Mwanaisha started a tailoring business;

“In my neighborhood, I always saw groups of small entrepreneurs like me gathering for weekly meetings, so I was interested. They would always look contented and not troubled with their business capital. I asked what the group was up to and they told me about Tujijenge Tanzania and its loans which I found had affordable loan conditions. I immediately joined the Songambele group."

Mwanaisha’s sewing machines - Photo Credit: Tujijenge Tanzania

Mwanaisha with some of her creations - Photo Credit: Tujijenge Tanzania Ltd.

Mwanaisha says she feels that becoming a Tujijenge borrower has had a very positive impact on her business and her family's life;

"The loans I have taken from Tujijenge have helped me a big deal. Together we are able to pay school fees for our two children and meet all our needs. Since I joined Tujijenge it has now been possible for me to purchase more rolls of fabric, vitenge, blankets and other equipments I use for sewing and my shop and I can boast that my shop never runs out of stock. I have one employee, a boy who helps me selling the clothes I make in the local market where I earn more profit. For example, I would always sell a blanket for 4,000 shillings from my shop here but when I take it to the market, it would go for 5,000 shillings. Therefore, I have scheduled my week such that on Tuesdays and Sundays I do not open the shop and I sell my products at the local market thoroughly. I want my shop to be full of stock all the time, I want to purchase a big closet for keeping my customers’ clothes, I also plan to purchase an over lock machine because I would always rent one from my competitors. I have so many dreams for my shop.”

Thank you Mwanaisha for sharing your story with us! To learn more about the amazing work of Tujijenge Tanzania check out their Kiva Partner page and website!

By the Numbers: Microfinance and... football?

Superbowl Sunday is fast approaching! And as the Giants and the Patriots gear up to face off, we started wondering how the game on the field might tie into our work in the field. It’s a natural question when millions of people rally around something -- whether it’s a cause or the big game. How powerful could all those people be? When it comes to the Superbowl and Kiva, the answer is: very. Here’s some food for thought (to go with your hot wings):

Capacity of Lucas Oil Stadium: 70,000
Kiva’s user base: 1,056,402 - We fill over 15 stadiums, but could always use one more!

Number of 2011 Superbowl viewers: 111 million
Population of the 8 African countries Kiva helps serve: 99.4 million (if every watcher gave $1 - that would be 4.4 million $25 loans.)

Average cost for 30-second Super Bowl commercial: $3.5 million
Total amount lent in December 2011: $10.5 million (3 times more!)

Total amount spent on 2011 Super Bowl Commercials: $205.2 million
Total amount of loans made through Kiva: $280.3 million

Average price for 2011 Super Bowl ticket: $4,683
Average size of a Kiva loan: $385.49 (12 loans could be made for just one ticket!)

To harness some of this amazing fan power -- and in the spirit of friendly competition -- we’re kicking off the first ever KivaSuper Bowl. That’s right, it’s the New England Patriots Lending Team versus the New York Giants Lending Team! Whichever team lends the most between 12:01 am on January 27 and the last whistle blown at Sunday’s game wins eternal bragging rights and karma points.

This is your chance to support your team and do good for the world at the same time. Now that’s a winning combination!

Meet Featured Lender, Nancy

Although we love all of our Kiva Lenders, this week we wanted to highlight the story of one lender whose lending milestone caught our attention.

Meet Nancy from Minnetonka, MN, who made her 210^th loan this week!! She has been a member of Kiva since March of 2008, which means that she has averaged at least one loan per week over the four years. We asked Nancy why she makes Kiva loans and here is what she had to say:

“Kiva came to my attention during a time when I was reevaluating how I might make a difference in the world. As a businesswoman, lending to entrepreneurs through microfinance is very appealing.  Since 2008 I have made loans all over the world at very little personal risk.  The money I have spread out in Kiva could be sitting in a savings account making minimal interest, or it can be used to improve the lives of people in need. The decision is a no-brainer!”

Well said! Thank you Nancy, for consistently supporting the mission of Kiva.

Nancy is a part of the 'Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics,Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious Team', who also celebrated a huge milestone this week. Congrats to the entire team for reaching the $6M mark!

 A big thanks to Nancy and the team for being exceptional Kivans.

Featured Volunteer: Margaret Wolfe-Roberts

By Lindsay Monnet, Review and Translation Program Intern

"I'm proud to be part of a community that will respect and accommodate differences."

City: Asheboro, North Carolina
Language: Spanish
Team: Magnificent 7
Time with Kiva: Since June of 2010

How did you find out about Kiva?
I was researching terminology online as I often do for my work as a professional interpreter/translator and ran across an untranslated Spanish loan description with Kiva. I thought, “I could help with that!”

Why do you choose to volunteer your time with Kiva?
I love the way that translating for Kiva pops me out of my own reality into another so easily. Whether it’s discovering that solar energy systems are huge among coffee farmers in Guatemala, tracking down exotic birds on the Internet, or diving into a stunningly beautiful and seemingly endless photo-stream of traditional textiles and handicraft, I feel I’m on a magic carpet ride every time.
I also highly value the community among volunteers and staff, and the strong sense of connection I have with all of you “through the ether.” The cool Kiva drinking bottle when I hit 200 loans was a plus, too.

From where do you typically review Kiva loans?
My desk at my home office. I have a large south-facing window which is often sunny and looks out onto a beautiful river birch.

What is your favorite partner or region?
I like them all. I’m a member of the atheist/humanist lending group, so I have just started looking at the field partners more individually from that angle. But I appreciate any group focused on improving people’s access to resources: financial, social and personal.

Tell us about a memorable profile you have reviewed.
My most remarkable loan translated was to a person who appeared to have an intellectual disability. He has a business sewing Lycra pants for children. It reminds me of the time some friends carried a man in a wheelchair up two flights of stairs to a party. Similarly I admire women in non-traditional businesses such as the widow who runs an auto-parts store, and several loans recently discussed on the volunteer forum involving transgendered borrowers. I am inspired by a spirit of inclusiveness. I enjoy seeing people who fall outside the norm in some way making contributions to society, and I’m proud to be part of a community that will respect and accommodate many types of differences.

Where is your favorite place in the world to travel?
That’s a tough one since there are a whole lot of places I haven’t been yet. Perhaps it would be all the interpersonal and intrapersonal journeys that seem to take on greater importance as years go by.

Tell us an unusual or surprising fact about yourself.
I also volunteer as a mediator in court for cases between individuals, in both Spanish and English. It’s tough to say which I enjoy more—helping Kiva revolutionize global financial structures or empowering parties in conflict to resolve their differences successfully—they are both wonderful in their own way!

Photo provided by Margaret Wolfe-Roberts, Volunteer Translator