Kiva Fellows come from a vast variety of backgrounds, both in regards to their professional experience and hobbies. When the Kiva Fellows Program Team is trying to decide where to send people they evaluate what MFIs would benefit most from that fellow’s individual experience and skills, and also what special projects they can work on to benefit Kiva’s mission and/or the MFI. As part of my fellowship I was asked to help add to Kiva’s library of borrower images, which are used for marketing and communications purposes by Kiva. With camera in hand I have set out to take...
Continue Reading >>Stories tagged with Fondo Esperanza
How should a microfinance institution (MFI) measure performance? Should they focus solely on the most common method, financial performance, or are things like client retention rates and social indicators also important? While traditional financial indicators, like client repayment rate, are important in a drive to create a sustainable MFI, they do not measure the entire success of an MFI. Even client retention is not a perfect measure; are clients continuing to use services because they are good, or driven to by necessity to make payments on spiraling indebtedness? Measuring social...
Continue Reading >>Early this week I had to the opportunity to go out into the field with Kiva staff member Nicolas Lafaye (Portfolio Manager for South America) as he visited Fondo Esperanza in Santiago, Chile. This day gave me the opportunity to focus on two of my favorite parts of being a Kiva Fellow: talking with clients and taking photos. With camera in hand we headed out to two communities in the Santiago area, visited clients in their homes and businesses, and attended a Communal Bank meeting. Here are 3 of my favorite photos from the day, as well as some of what I learned about their businesses...
Continue Reading >>This is the question I asked myself as I arrived in May at Fondo Esperanza (FE). After spending 3 months working with Fundación Mario Santo Domingo (FMSD) in Barranquilla, Colombia as part of KF14, I saw first hand how successful individual loans could be in helping people start and grow their own businesses. FMSD had used group lending in the past (and still has a small number of group loans), but found individual loans worked better for their clientele. Fast forward to my arrival at FE in Santiago, Chile: FE dropped individual loans in favor of communal banks about 9 years ago and is...
Continue Reading >>By Lorena Gil, KF12, Fondo Esperanza – Chile
I have a love / hate relationship with credit and I doubt I am the only one. More than anything it’s what credit enables us to do that appeals to us as borrowers. It can be as simple as giving us the opportunity to purchase Christmas gifts for loved ones or as big as college loans or even a house. If those of us in developed countries cannot function without credit imagine those in impoverished communities.
Continue Reading >>By Lorena Gil, KF12, Fondo Esperanza – Chile
Each year Fondo Esperanza (FE) conducts a month long campaign (July 15th – August 15th) geared to attracting more socias (borrowers/entrepreneurs) and reaffirming FE’s presence in needy communities. I arrived to Fondo Esperanza in the middle of the campaign and enjoyed being part of these activities.
I was also able to see how FE markets itself to the public. I was quite surprised when I arrived and turned on the television and saw a commercial of FE, how often do you see a commercial of an MFI(microfinance...
Continue Reading >>By Lorena Gil, KF12, Fondo Esperanza – Chile
I am not a computer wiz at all, so when Kiva asked the fellows heading to Latin America to conduct a survey of the Management Informational System (MIS) at our designated MFI placements I had no idea what to expect.
Early on to my arrival at Fondo Esperanza I decided to conduct the MIS survey, as I figured what better way to learn how the overall work of this...
Continue Reading >>By Lorena Gil, KF12, Fondo Esperanza – Chile
On August 6th, over 10,000 balloons soared into the sky with the dreams of Fondo Esperanza’s entrepreneurs. Fondo Esperanza is a non-profit foundation that supports entrepreneurship through the provision of credit and training to people living in vulnerable situations to improve their lives and their families. More than 12,000 entrepreneurs and staff from Fondo Esperanza from Iquique to Puerto Montt united in the main plazas of each city at noon, and in a simultaneous effort, these entrepreneurs of...
Continue Reading >>By Lorena Gil, Kiva Fellow/KF12, Fondo Esperanza – Chile
On my first official day at Fondo Esperanza I was quickly whisked to a press release event already underway at a local communal centre in Santiago, Chile, where socias (borrowers) of Fondo Esperanza conduct local weekly meetings.
The Ministry of Planning and Cooperation (Mideplan) of Chile chose this location to reveal the results of the national socio-economic survey (Casen 2009) which showed an increasing income gap between the poorest and the richest. In conjunction, a UN Report showed Chile to have...
Continue Reading >>By Kati Mayfield, KF11 Chile
Let’s hear it for everyone who works hard: supporting themselves, supporting their families, and trying to balance their professional and personal lives!
We all know that this balance is nearly impossible to achieve, but the formula becomes especially complicated when you run your own business.
While microfinance very much opens up otherwise inaccessible business opportunities to micro-entrepreneurs and their families, the obligations of running these businesses and repaying loans can be a cause of great strain and tension.
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