If you asked me what I have learned about microfinance during my Kiva Fellowship, I wouldn’t know where to start. I have learned that running a social business comes with its share of challenges. I have learned that technology will pave new ways for the future of microfinance. I have learned that the best microfinance organizations have their clients at the heart of all their activities. I could go on and on about my impressions of microfinance from the last six months…but in my final blog post, I will spare you. Instead, below I share with you my 5 favorite images (from the 1,667 photos I...
Continue Reading >>Stories tagged with Dian Bhuana Lestari Foundation (Dinari)
By Jerry Harter, KF13 Indonesia
During my three months in Bali, I gained an appreciation of people’s resourcefulness here. I encountered many ways that people make a living. Typically, families have multiple streams of income, although ‘trickles of income’ is a perhaps a more apt description.
Various small enterprises are cobbled together, depending on the resources and demand in the area. Often some money can be made from the land – crops, bee keeping, pig farming, a little more can be made from manufacturing – handicrafts, wood carving, brick making, and...
Continue Reading >>By Jerry Harter, KF13 Indonesia
Recently the Christian Church in Blimbingsari celebrated its 71th Anniversary. As with many important occasions in Bali, this called for the roasting of a pig and making satay. I had the privilege of attending this ceremony and enjoyed both an excellent meal and a wonderful example of community.
When I arrived in Bali to begin my Kiva placement I wondered why so many people are engaged in pig farming here...
Continue Reading >>By Jerry Harter, KF13 Indonesia
A micro-finance institution (MFI) is a social enterprise. Unlike ordinary for-profit businesses, a social enterprise’s measure of success is its social agenda. Nonetheless, it needs to be financially viable in order to continue doing its work. The social agenda of micro-finance institutions is to alleviate poverty through the use of financial services for the poor, such as credit and savings services. Koperasi Mitra Usaha Kecil (MUK), the MFI I’ve been working with as a Kiva Fellow in Bali, is a cooperative that operates much like a...
Continue Reading >>By Jerry Harter, KF13 Indonesia
Riding on the back of Zeruya’s motor bike, I was on my way to visit the Taman Indah Group about 20 miles from the microfinance office, Koperasi Mitra Usaha Kecil (MUK). After weaving through a chaotic maze of trucks, cycles, and cars, I was relieved to leave the main highway and turn down a quiet lane of paddy fields and cucumber farms. Zeruya, my Kiva contact with MUK, wished his tires had less air to better handle the potholes – and my additional weight. Ultimately we turned into a driveway where many of the group had already...
Continue Reading >>By Jerry Harter, KF13 Indonesia
After a 24 hour plane ride from Seattle, I was looking forward to relaxing and recovering from jetlag before beginning my Kiva Fellowship in Bali. Emerging from baggage claim at the Denpasar airport, I negotiated for a taxi to the town of Ubud.
Because of its reputation as an important center for Balinese culture and art, the town of Ubud in eastern Bali is a destination for most tourists who visit the island. Its magic and charm are legendary. Terraced paddy fields spread out a luscious green backdrop for a town that provides an...
Continue Reading >>At the end of 2009, Koperasi Mitra Usaha Kecil (MUK) was a microfinance presence in West Bali, operating at its headquarters office in the village of Blimbingsari and a single branch in Melaya. As we approach the end of 2010, MUK’s footprint is steadily expanding. Earlier this year, the microfinance cooperative established a second branch office in Pejarakan, Singaraja in North Bali. And MUK is gearing up to open its third branch in the coming month, which will be based in the village of Baturiti in the Tabanan region of central Bali.
Baturiti is in the mountains of Bali, and with...
Continue Reading >>By Anna Antoni, KF11 Indonesia
In Indonesia, a developing country where you can observe a lot of chaos and reasons for inconvenience, religion is obvious everywhere. Every religion is extremely prominent in daily life and I dare to state that for most Indonesians there is no part of life that is not influenced by religion.
And maybe this is one of the reasons why most people i met still seem to be more confident and happy in their life than people in countries with a higher standard of living (see “7 reasons to fall in love with not-...
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By Anna Antoni, KF11 Indonesia
Negativity, discontentment, racism, catastrophy-focusing, no interest in strangers. All this I know very well from home in Vienna but in Indonesia you can find right the opposite in the national spirit.
The Top 7 reasons to fall in love with Indonesia (for me it was love at first sight) deserve attention, because Indonesia as biggest Muslim populated country which had to face terrorist acts in past years isn’t used to good publicity…
To get to the obvious connection to microfinance read to the end or...
Continue Reading >>Nadia Anggraini, KF10, Indonesia
You’ve read all about what’s required to become a Kiva Fellow. Now here’s a look at what you need to actually survive a 12+ week placement*.
1) Flexibility, patience, and a healthy sense of humor
You’ve just spent three hours sweating it out on a public bus filled with chain-smoking men to get to one of your MFI’s branch offices, and then another hour on a bumpy and rainy motorbike ride up to a remote village by the mountains. “It’s worth it”, you tell yourself, “a lot of borrowers live in this one village, and...
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