Many of Kiva’s partners continue to extend the reach of microfinance, and one such example of this is Philippines-based partner Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF). In recent months, NWTF has embraced Kiva’s renewed focus on catalytic loan products and has introduced a program dedicated toward offering community-impact loans to clients. The program is targeted at enterprises that can add significant value to poor communities, in terms of...
Continue Reading >>Stories tagged with NWTF (Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation)
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 >>Since arriving in the Philippines in early November, just in time for the holiday season, I have been to my fair share of parties. None of them, however, quite compare to the event I attended this past weekend in Cauayan, as the Project Dungganon 1 branch office here celebrated its 21st annual Foundation Day 2.
The festivities kicked off with a Catholic Mass at 8.30 AM, and continued until 3.30 pm in the afternoon. The event was like no other – a hybrid of a party/annual meeting/talent show for all client-members of the Cauayan branch. NWTF’s directors travelled to Cauayan to take...
Continue Reading >>Dream big. Do you want to pay for your daughter’s university education? Do you want to throw a celebration for your son’s wedding? Do you want to make significant improvements to your house? Even if you are poor, these dreams can be possible through financial planning.
Noel, of the Client Services department, welcomes Dungganon members to the workshop
This week, I had the opportunity to take part in a two-day workshop for Project Dungganon* members on wealth management and savings generation – where clients were encouraged to think of future goals and how...
Continue Reading >>Singing and videoke are a large part of the Filipino culture, as I have discovered over the past month and a half while working here. In my first week at the Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF), I was taken out by staff members to a nearby lounge – and being my first time there (as with all new patrons), was invited on to the stage to sing with the live band. Let’s just say my rendition of “California Gurls” does not quite compare to Katy Perry’s.
Since that first week, some of my most memorable experiences have involved videoke and singing, and I’d like to share a few of...
Continue Reading >>Today, in the wee hours of the morning, American shoppers queued up outside their favorite stores, waiting anxiously to get the holiday season’s best deals. As Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season in the USA, and is one of the most highly-trafficked days of the year for U.S. malls….I also found myself at the mall this Friday…though this mall was in the Philippines.
Continue Reading >>At a busy center[1] meeting, a woman waits, among 50 other women, for her turn to meet with her loan officer and make a weekly loan repayment. In a different village in the Philippines, one woman collects repayments from her 50 other center members, then travels the distance to the nearest commercial center to make the weekly repayment for the entire group at a bank. Now, imagine a scenario where a borrower can simply go to a retailer in her village and make her loan repayment by text message. Sound interesting?
In a rural area served by NWTF – where mobile banking could...
Continue Reading >>Josh Weinstein, KF9, Philippines
Last week I went to a town called La Castellana about an hour south of Bacolod to visit the NWTF branch there. I was there to meet a handful of Kiva borrowers and interview them about the progress of their loan. Over the course of two days, I met six women that currently have a loan with Kiva, and another four that I am going to post to the site this week. La Castellana is a town in the mountains that is largely supported by agriculture. It is also one of the major areas impacted by agrarian reform and home to some of NWTF...
Continue Reading >>By Josh Weinstein, KF9 Philippines
This Kiva Fellows job is unique, in that it offers an endless supply of intellectual stimulation and satisfaction. Every day, I learn something new about something interesting. For the time being, what interests me most is microfinance. My knowledge of microfinance prior to working with Kiva could be described as purely...
Continue Reading >>By Josh Weinstein, KF9 Philippines
I spent the last week with the research department touring the region, tagging along on a market research survey. On the last day, we were driving through a coastal town when the paved road turned to dirt. According to the driver and director of the research department at NWTF, when the road turns to dirt, you know you are headed in the right direction. Sure enough, within a few minutes we reached a squatter community bustling with people. (In the Philippines, the government protects squatters, and large communities spring up on...
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