BBC documentary shoot in Tanzania!!

Kiva Fellow Sarah Forbes recently facilitated a shoot in Tanzaniza for a BBC documentary series that includes Kiva. The shoot involved interviews with Kiva Entrepreneurs at Tujijenge. She wrote about her experience:

You can never quite be sure what requests you might receive as a Kiva Fellow, and the call I received from Kiva's Public Relations Director, Fiona Ramsey, was one of theose unexpected requests. She let me know that the BBC was putting together a television series on social enterprise, that one of the episodes will focus on Kiva, and that a BBC Rockhopper Production Team would be coming to Tanzania to film some Kiva Borrowers from our Field Partner Tujijenge. As a Kiva Fellow in Tanzania, I was in a position to help facilitate the filming.

In order to tell the complete story of Kiva, a BBC Rockhopper production team (consisting of Rebecca Stewart and Kim Dawson) and the series host (Alvin Hall) arrived in Tanzania after several long flights, ready to roll the next morning. Their time in Dar es Salaam was limited, as they had an appointment the next day to film giant rats. Yes, that’s right, giant rats. Kiva is in great company for this series on social enterprise, alongside the fascinating organization of Apopo, which breeds and trains giant rats to sniff out tuberculosis in blood samples as well as to track down landmines in Mozambique.

Since we would only have one day to get the film of Alvin Hall interviewing Kiva borrowers completed, and had to compete with giant, TB-sniffing rats, I was a bit nervous, especially since I only had 3 days in which to organize where they would be shooting and whom.

I shouldn’t have been nervous, though, since, luckily, Tujijenge has Rita as a Kiva Coordinator. Rita was indispensable to the work done both in preparation and in actual filming, helping to organize interviews so that we could identify potential stories, wandering with me down dark, muddy alleys in the rain in search of borrowers’ business locations, and acting as translator both during phone calls to borrowers and, when two other translators backed out, during the filming itself. This project simply would not have happened without her. Nor would Kiva be able to function without her and the other Field Partner staff like her all around the world.

The borrowers focused on in the episode are Neema Abdallah and Atuna Issa, two incredible women whose stories of entrepreneurship will be able to hold their own against those of even the most talented giant rat nostrils. Neema is a divorcee, mother of three, and on her second loan from Tujijenge. We met with her for filming at her second business, the pharmacy she opened using capital from her first Tujijenge/Kiva loan and has been able to expand with the funds from her second loan. She now not only has two businesses to support herself, but is also able to provide an employment opportunity for another.

Atuna is a single mother of one daughter and has been able, using the loan from Tujijenge/Kiva to change from a business of selling illegal home brewed alcohol to frying and selling breakfast cassava. She showed us how she is slowly expanding her business with the cooler that she purchased and stocked with cold drinks using loan money. Atuna told us that she feels relieved to have changed to a more stable business and is happy to be able to provide education for her daughter with her profits.

The actual shooting of footage turned out to be much more low key than I had imagined. Some people gathered around to find out who we were and why we were there with a big camera and a big, bushy microphone (some good, if somewhat bizarre, neighborhood publicity for Tujijenge), but other than needing to ask for some radios to be turned down, the filming went off without a hitch. In no time at all, it seemed, the BBC Rockhopper Team were on the road.

They returned again the next week, sans host Alvin, to get some additional footage of Atuna setting up her business in the early hours and of Neema attending her weekly borrower group meeting. Winnie Terry, the manager of Tujijenge, also provided a look at Kiva operations from the field partner’s point of view. Combined with footage shot at Kiva Headquarters in San Francisco, the BBC episode will enable viewers to see the complete picture of how Kiva loans get to borrowers, examples of how they affect borrowers’ lives, how the money gets back to lenders, and what, in short, all of this really means for everyone involved.

A few months from now, the BBC Rockhopper production team will return to Tanzania, to meet again with Neema and Atuna, and to find out how they and their businesses are faring. Have the loans had a positive impact on how they do business? On how the women lead their lives? The series (as yet unnamed) is due to air sometime in the spring of 2010, so keep on the lookout for it to find out!"

You can read the Rockhopper Production Blog for the BBC Social Enterpreneurship series here.

Reminder: Kiva Community Conference Call

A friendly reminder that on Wednesday, we'll be having our July Community Conference call.

We'll be giving a short presentation, then we'll listen to your feedback on the Kiva US Pilot.

We are expecting a high number of participants to join this call. In order for us to facilitate the call and maximize the number of participants, we will be using an online web conference system. Please note that you will not be able to speak on the conference call unless you are logged in to the web conference.

The online web conference system will allow us to:

• Share a presentation online with all participants
• Manage requests to speak on the call through a feature where the caller "raises their hand"
• Improve sound quality for all callers by restricting the number of lines speaking to the audience
  

For those who have attended previous Community Conference Calls, you will notice that this is a little different to how we've done things in the past. Previous calls have had an "open floor" format where anyone was able to speak up and "take the floor". While this has been successful for past calls, we are expecting this month's call to require more organization.

The web conference system will allow each caller to electronically "raise their hand" to speak. They can also communicate directly with the call facilitator via instant message, to give a short description of their comment. This way, we can make sure that we are hearing from all sides of the conversation, and prioritize those whose comments have not yet been heard. All phone lines will be muted, until the caller is called upon to speak, to reduce background noise and improve sound quality.

So, don't forget that this month, if you would like to contribute to the call, you will need to take two steps:

1. Call in to the conference call
2. Log in to the web conference system

To dial in to the call:

When: The call is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15th at 2 pm US Pacific time.

Dial in US: 866-740-1260 Access Code: 6415483

Dial in (Outside US): +1 303-248-0285 Access Code: 6415483

To use the web conference system:

1 - Go to www.readytalk.com
2 - In the "Join a Meeting" section enter the access code 6415483

3 - When prompted, enter the required information.
4 - You will then be able to view our online presentation and you'll be able to "raise your hand" to speak.

The call will be recorded, and the recording will be posted on the Kiva blog within a few days of the call being completed.

We hope to hear you on the line!

Thank You Lenders for Making Philippines a Success!!

Dear Lenders --

With the signing of Kiva's 8th partner in the Philippines, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for making our expansion into the country possible. In the past 9 months since the first Filipino loan was posted to Kiva, you all have lent over $1 million USD to support Filipino microentrepreneurs. It is because of your support that Kiva has been able to expand so quickly in the country to support the working poor. On behalf of our Filipino partners & Team Asia, please accept our sincerest thanks for all your support!

At the same time, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the main drivers for this incredible growth in the Philippines from the Kiva side: Rico Munoz (official title: PDS Extraordinaire) and the team of past & current Fellows who worked/are working incredibly hard with the Filipino MFIs to get set-up on Kiva. Given that almost a year ago, Kiva did not have any partners in the Philippines and was only beginning its entry into the Philippines, it is a testament to these individuals that we now have 8 strong Filipino partners (5 whom are Active partners!) who collectively have raised over $1MM on Kiva in this short period of time.

Specifically, Rico has been absolutely amazing in identifying, researching & training all of the Filipino partners. He not only has built a strong rapport with the organizations we currently are working with, but he also ensured that they responded to all of our requests in a timely fashion which was instrumental in expanding in the country so quickly. And as the Filipino loan & journal postings have demonstrated, Rico has done an exceptional job in helping the MFIs understand how to operationalize Kiva and making sure they have the necessary tools & training to be excellent Kiva partners.

And what more can I say about the team of Fellows I have worked with in the Philippines? Not only do they have to put up working with me, but they have the hard part of actually making sure everything Rico & I train the MFIs on actually sticks. From traveling to remote branch offices to train credit officers on Kiva to posting business profiles/journal updates to helping an MFI develop a Kiva Implementation Manual to completing Borrower Verifications, my Fellows have done it all and done it exceptionally well. Without them, it is unlikely that many of our partners would have been able to post so many loans in such a short amount a time nor would the 5 Active partners have become Active partners so quickly. More importantly, all of the MFIs who have received a Fellow absolutely LOVE them & have repeatedly thanked me for sending them such great individuals.

And since I am the author of this email, I’d like to single out the Filipino members of Team Awesome:

1. ASHI – John Briggs (KF7), Sloane Berrent (KF8)
2. ASKI - Teresa Dunbar (KF7), Drew Loizeaux (KF8)
3. CCT – Merrick Brown (KF8)
4. CEVI – Rob Cavese (KF7), Milena Arciszewski (KF8)
5. PMPC – Evie Marzec (KF7)

Also, huge thanks to the hard-working Fellows Team of JD, Zack & their army of volunteers for finding & training such a great group of Fellows for the Philippines!

Anyways, since this post is getting ridiculously long, I think I’ll end it here. I know that I’ve left out others who have been instrumental in helping Team Asia get the Philippines off the ground (Editing/Translations dealing with suddenly urgent requests to edit Filipino loans, the Investment Committee, etc.) but please know that we greatly appreciate all the help you have provided to us.

So here’s to everyone that have made the Philippines a roaring success and hopefully we will duplicate this type of growth in Indonesia and beyond!

Sincerely,

Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific

Introducing Kiva's 6th, 7th & 8th Partner in the Philippines

Dear Lenders --

I am happy to announce that Kiva has signed on our 6th, 7th & 8th partner in the Philippines:

1. Gata Daku Multi-Purpose Cooperative. GDMPC is a 3-star MFI on the Kiva and is a strong, socially focused organization that works in the poorest & most challenging region in Philippines – Mindanao. For more information about GDMPC, please visit their website at: http://www.gatadakumpc.org/

2. Center for Community Transformation Community Cooperative (CCT). CCT is a 4-star MFI on the Kiva risk rating system and a strong, socially focused organization that works across the country in the Philippines. For more information about CCT, please visit their website: http://www.cct.org.ph/.

3. Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF). NWTF is a 4-star MFI on the Kiva risk rating system and a strong, socially focused organization that is based in Bacolod City with branches in almost all provinces of the Visayas Islands including Samar and Leyte. For more information about NWTF, please visit their website: http://www.nwtf.ph.

Sincerely,

Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific Region

The Mystery of Success

"Business success is often a mystery. Very often, luck is a big part of it. Often it's skill. Sometimes it's just plain sweat and perseverance. Micro-entrepreneurs are no different, and while we can sometimes guess at why one entrepreneur can be so successful as to expand their business and hire employees whereas others do not, often, it's simply a mystery.

When I first met Adora Fajiculay I'd I'd invited myself into her workspace after seeing the most fantastic gown on display there. I learned she made the dress from pandan palm, for a beauty contestant to wear at the annual Banigan Festival. The gown was not only beautiful to look at, but structurally flawless. If there were a "Project Runway: Philippines", Adora would win, hands down.

I went wild with praise as she stood by not quite sure what to make of all of it. At first meeting, Adora can be perceived as shy. She is petite and soft-spoken, and always gracious and welcoming.

Adora was the first Filipina borrower that you had the chance to meet on Kiva. She was the first borrower posted by any Philippine MFI to Kiva, winning her the distinction of being the first Philippine entrepreneur on the site.

Adora's business success is clear. Her two-room workshop hums, and is so busy that she has had to hire help; she now employs two women, and is planning to hire a third worker to staff a new uniform showroom she intends to open across from a local university. But she didn't arrive here from a path destined to succeed.

Adora comes from a large family, and due to challenges at home, was raised by her aunt. She got her first taste of intensive sewing in a home economics course when she was a third-year high school student. After finishing high school in 1997, Adora began looking for a way to earn money to help pay for medical bills for her father, who was suffering from a terminal illness. She left her home in Antique Province, where fishing and farming are the economic mainstays and wages are low, to work at a garment factory in Bulacan, northwest of Manila. Adora worked there for three years, sending home most of her earnings.

When her father's condition failed to improve, Adora decided to return home. She was determined to go to university or college. Adora examined the opportunities available to her, and chose to apply for a Philippine government scholarship program run by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. She was accepted, and was eligible to have half of her tuition paid at an accredited school for either a course in a computer-related field, or hotel and restaurant management.

But Adora began to have second thoughts. She wasn't enthusiastic about a career in computers, or the hospitality industry. To her, neither would provide her with much opportunity to determine her own fate. Moreover, the accredited school she would have to attend charged much higher tuition than other schools in Antique Province. So she did what few Filipinos in her shoes would have done: she turned down the scholarship.

Instead, she chose to build on the skills she'd learned at the garment factory and enrolled as a garments technology major at another school. Once in school, she excelled. One day, she was reading through the student handbook and noticed that full academic scholarships were available for good students. Again she applied for a scholarship, and again her diligence paid off. The school paid half of her tuition fees the second semester of her first year, and all of her tuition fees every year thereafter.

To cover her living expenses, and to help her family out, she took on work outside of school at a local clothes design shop. The move was economic and academic -- assignments she got at work doubled as projects she could submit as schoolwork -- but despite that, it was very hard work. She often worked seven days a week, and long into the night, and from the time she entered school, she became her family's primary breadwinner. Adora's long-suffering father died in 2001, when she was a second-year student.

After graduating from school in 2003, Adora started her tailoring and seamstress business as a one-woman operation, armed with a single foot-powered sewing machine. Adora knew that in order to grow her business, she'd need money to be able to buy better equipment, but she couldn't qualify for a loan from a commercial bank. Soon thereafter, Adora discovered Kiva partner Ahon Sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI), which started lending in Antique Province in 1998 after identifying the area as one of the poorest and most in need of its services.

ASHI not only provided Adora the money to buy vital equipment such as high-speed sewing, edging, and embroidery machines, but it helped build her confidence as a businesswoman. For ASHI, lending money is only part of the equation: it also has a keen focus on social development, and strives to build leadership skills among its all-female membership that take out loans as part of groups bound by social collateral.


Through successive loan cycles from ASHI, Adora secured the capital necessary to grow her business. As she expanded her capacity, and built upon her reputation, and her business has now grown so much that she had to hire full-time help. She dreams that three years from now, she will own a well-equipped dress shop to be able to cope with orders for school uniforms in state colleges around the bustling capital town of San Jose de Buenavista, Antique.

Adora is now 28, and married to Juvey, a booking agent for a bus company whose job keeps him away from home for all but two days a month. They have a nine-month old girl, Crysantha Nicole. She is still her family's primary breadwinner; her mother now lives with her and helps with raising pigs and other ventures.

I've met scores of borrowers in my time as a Kiva Fellow -- first in Cambodia, then the Philippines, and now Kenya -- but of all the borrowers I've encountered, Adora stands apart. Most of the borrowers I've met have been able to use loans with modest but very real success: credit helps them to temper the worst shocks of poverty, and puts their families on sounder footing. But few have been able to build businesses that employ others as successfully as Adora's.

I was left wondering what made her different -- why did she succeed where other borrowers hadn't? Had being raised by her aunt left her with the realization that if her immediate family couldn't care for her, then she'd have to do it herself. Had her father's death forced her to accept more responsibility for her loved ones than if he'd survived? She had taken a significant risk turning down the government scholarship she'd received, but it was clearly the right decision. How did she know that she would be more successful tailoring than working in hospitality or computers?

The best answer I can come up with, is that Adora was just incredibly determined to succeed. While I wonder at the mystery of her success, it's possible the better question is "could anything have stopped her?"

John Briggs is a Kiva Fellow currently working with the Kenya Agency for the Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET) based in Nairobi. John is one of our longer-term Kiva Fellows; before going to Kenya, he served with Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) in the Philippines from March to May 2009, and Maxima Mikroheranvatho in Cambodia from October 2008 to February 2009.

- John Briggs is a Kiva Fellow working with the Kenya Agency for the Development of Enterprise and Technology (KADET) based in Nairobi. John is one of our longer-term Kiva Fellows; before going to Kenya, he worked with Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) in the Philippines from March to May 2009, and Maxima in Cambodia from October 2008 to February 2009.

Standing on his own two feet

“I want the Kiva lenders to know that I only borrow what I need, not what I can.”

These words really took me by surprise, when I visited Kiva Enterpreneur Borya Enhbat a few weeks ago. Of all the messages he could have asked me to pass on to Kiva Lenders, this was most important to him.

At first I wondered if this comment came from his feeling apologetic to Kiva Lenders for needing to borrow their money, and wanting to make sure that they knew it was an act of necessity, not luxury.

But as I got to know him better, I realized that this wasn’t about his feelings towards the Kiva Lenders. This message was coming from the pride that Borya has, and has feelings about the way he lives his life. This is a man with dignity, who taught me about “wants” and “needs”, and what it means to live a proud life.

Borya, his wife and his four children, live in a tent. Where I’m from, we use tents on vacation as a temporary shelter. But in Mongolia, many people live in a “ger”, which is the traditional home structure here. Borya’s wife is his business partner, and he is very proud of his son, a miner - mining is one of the biggest industries in Mongolia. His son is married and lives in a ger nearby.

Borya first became a cobbler while working under the former communist system of Mongolia. However, after the fall of the communist system in 1990, which led to massive food shortages, the collapse of most enterprises and high inflation, Borya decided to try to make it on his own under the new democratic system. It’s amazing to me that the dream of making it on our own – the so-called “American” dream – is actually a global dream, shared by billions of people around the world.

At first, Borya was always asking his friends and family to borrow money for his business, a common situation the unbanked population of the world. However, in 2001 XacBank (pronounced “Haass Bank”), the result of merging two non-bank financial institutions combined, launched with the motto “Mongolians can repay.”



Borya has certainly proven that motto. He has become a regular XacBank client (probably to the relief of his friends!) and he can go straight to the bank to take out micro-loans. One of his previous loans was to buy furniture for his son to live independently in a ger with his wife. With his loan funded by Kiva Lenders, Borya is buying supplies for his cobbler business.

And he has reason to need supplies! This weekend is Naadam in Mongolia, a traditional festival locally called “the three games of men”: wrestling, horse racing and archery. The men of Mongolia are a very tough people, and tough people need tough boots. That’s exactly what Borya plans to sell them this weekend.

Borya has already done his research for this weekend’s business opportunities. He has scouted out his competitors and thinks he can sell his boots at 15,000 tugrogs, undercutting his competitors at 20,000 turgogs (1 USD = 1400 turgogs). This will still allow him a significant profit margin and should increase his sales. Borya seems to know his business well; he has already repaid his loan two months ahead of time, and, as a result, he will receive some of his interest payments back from XacBank.

Eight years after opening, XacBank is a completely self-sufficient microfinance institution. 11 years after starting his small business, with the help of XacBank’s loans, Borya is now looking into a new market – making shoes as well as fixing them. He’s looking to open a second shop, and plans to use his next loan to buy a high quality sewing machine, as his current sewing machine is not good enough to make a large quantity of boots.



There is a Mongolian proverb that Borya likes, which says “if one works hard, good destiny follows.” Knowing Borya’s work ethic, and his attitude toward debt, I now much better understand his message to Kiva lenders:

“I want the Kiva lenders to know that I only borrow what I need, not what I can.”

Borya's message was not about the loans he's taken out. His message was about himself, the type of man he is and the kind of life he lives - one of pride and dignity.


(Note: For some more Mongolian pleasure, listen to Kiva Entrepreneur Enhtuya Erdene-ochir playing the yatga, a traditional Mongolian instrument, and singing the song "Full Moon", which she suggested she sing for Kiva Lenders. Enhtuya will also be busy this weekend - in addition to the house shoes she used her Kiva loan to make, she also makes traditional Mongolian hats and costumes which are worn during Naddam.)"


- Tamara Sanderson (seen here, second from the right, at the XacBank retreat in Mongolia) is a Kiva Fellow currently working with XacBank in Mongolia. Click here to read Tamara's blogs about working with XacBank.

Changing Laundry, Changing Lives

Can you change lives while changing the way you do laundry? It sounds odd at first. What does laundry have to do with Kiva? We asked ourselves the same question. But when we found that some of Purex’s employees were avid Kiva lenders and that they wanted to find a way to let people discover Kiva and make a difference by connecting their Purex purchase with Purex loans to mom entrepreneurs, we thought it would be an interesting experiment in small actions that can add up to big impact.

When you purchase a package of the new Purex® Complete 3-in-1™ Laundry Sheets you can redirect one dollar from your purchase to Kiva. Simply log on to PurexChangesLives.com, enter the UPC code from your purchase, and you can contribute in a whole new way. Try it out. You might find that something as simple as changing laundry can be part of how you change lives with Kiva.



To learn more about the Purex partnership click on the widget above or visit: purexchangeslives.com