Stories tagged with Haiti
It is a profession that is normally passed on from mothers to daughters, and in...
At first pass, Germany doesn’t seem like a country that would fit with Kiva’s non-profit microfinance orientation and mission statement. Yet, in Frankfurt, one of the world’s prominent financial centres, an innovative start-up and recent Kiva Field Partner, Yunus Social Business (“YSB”), is pushing the envelope of social business investing,... Continue Reading >>
By Nick Hamilton, KF13 Haiti and Dominican Republic, KF14 Colombia
This is the final installment of a three-part article on ‘The Pros and Cons of Microfinance – A View From The Field.’ The first concentrated on the pros of microfinance and the second on the cons. This third part will describe what I deem to be the optimum conditions for successful microfinance.
The cons described in Part 2 of this article may come across as quite negative, but at Interactuar (in Antioquia, Colombia – my second Kiva Fellowship) I saw many being...
Continue Reading >>By Nick Hamilton, KF13 Haiti and Dominican Republic, KF14 Colombia
This is the second of a three-part article on ‘The Pros and Cons of Microfinance – A View From The Field’. The first part concentrated on the pros. The second will focus on the cons.
Most of the cons described below demonstrate one thing; microfinance assists on a micro level but is unable to affect macro-level influences. The latter are the main reason that people are impoverished in the first place.
During my time in Haiti and the Dominican Republic I generally found...
Continue Reading >>By Nick Hamilton, KF13 Haiti and Dominican Republic, KF14 Colombia
I have now come to the end of my second placement as a Kiva Fellow. I have seen microfinance at work in two organisations – Interactuar and Esperanza International – in three different countries; Colombia, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. My 6-month stint has been an eye-opener. It’s been fun and interesting, challenging and frustrating.
I embarked on this journey knowing very little about microfinance. I had a notion of the supposed pros and cons of this exciting, largely...
Continue Reading >>Compiled by Alexis Ditkowsky, KF14, South Africa
Another week, another incredible range of dispatches from around the world. Several Fellows told their stories with video and pictures while others took time to reflect on the state of microfinance as a global...
Continue Reading >>by Nick Hamilton, KF14, Colombia
When it comes to blogging, a new pastime of mine, I often go a bit heavy on the word count. Not this time. This is a video blog and so I’ll let the video do the talking.
I made this short film over a few weeks during my time serving as a Kiva Fellow at Esperanza International in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
My intention was to give viewers a good idea of some of the things a Kiva Fellow gets up to. I also wanted to produce something that would encourage prospective Fellows to apply. I hope I’ve achieved...
Continue Reading >>By Nick Hamilton, KF13
Please note that I am living in Northern Haiti, which wasn’t hit by by the January 2010 earthquake, and not in Port-au-Prince.
As I waited for a bus to take me to Trou du Nord, Northern Haiti, I was struck by a curious sight. I was surrounded by hoards of impeccably dressed schoolchildren. Their clothes were perfectly ironed, shoes spotless, shirts tucked in and socks pulled up. They portrayed an elegance of military ilk, if it weren’t for the spectacular collection of hairstyles and bows displayed on the heads of the giddy...
Continue Reading >>By Nick Hamilton, KF13
Before beginning my placement as a Kiva Fellow, I tended to view the Kiva model simply in terms of members lending to borrowers and borrowers paying back. It was hard to envisage the intricacies of an Field Partner’s (or MFI) operations and what goes into facilitating a loan. In my eyes the MFI was the middle man; an amorphous mass that made things happen. Of course, the simple fact is that without MFIs Kiva would not exist. They share an equal responsibility with the lenders and the borrowers in ensuring that Kiva’s mission – ‘to...
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