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Carnaval Crazies and Office Calm
I arrived in Bolivia on Sunday to the happy sounds and bright colors of Carnaval. The whole country was busy with their week long celebrations before lent. This Christian country incorporates many...
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How Sierra Found Her Glasses
Emprender has two offices in Cochabamba and three in Santa Cruz. Both these cities have a distinct character, and reputation that precedes them. The Cochabambinos, or “ “Bambinos” (best nick name ever...
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Best for Bolivia
Bolivia’s political conflict, antics and struggle are very much a part of the day to day. But somehow, I haven’t really felt it. I know that in September of 2008 the situation was much more tense....
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Goodbye Kiva!
Last week was my last week as a Kiva Fellow. As I sat in the cold air of the bar Emprender took me to celebrate the end of my time with their offices and the national Dia del Trabajador (or workers...
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How Kiva helps the poor deal with life’s uncertainties
By Adam Kemmis Betty, KF9 Bolivia Those frustrated with the health-and-safety of Europe and North America often celebrate the apparent appetite for risk in countries such as Bolivia, where you carry...
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Cusco on My Mind
If you haven’t heard, there have been terrible floods in Cusco, Peru in the past week. Since we are in the thick of La Epoca de la Lluvia (the rainy season), rain is expected but the level of...
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Falso! Parte Dos – How to Tell If Your Money is Fake in Bolivia
Since beginning to work in La Paz, Bolivia with microfinance institution and Kiva partner Emprender, one of the first things I wanted to learn was how to tell a fake Bolivian bill from a real one....
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Why you should support group loans on Kiva
I met some Dutch Kiva lenders during a trip to Isla del Sol, Lake Titicaca in Bolivia who don’t like to loan to groups on Kiva. Both the MFIs I have worked with as a Kiva Fellow, Asociación Arariwa and...
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Mini Carga desde 1 Boliviano (Mini-Recharge from 1 Boliviano)
Everywhere I go in Bolivia I see huge billboards that advertise "Mini Carga desde 1 Bs" (Mini recharge from 1 Boliviano) with a picture of a guy holding a 1 Boliviano coin and a cellphone. Mini Carga...
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Transportation, Microfinance and the Environment
Transportation has been an integral part of my travels in South America. I have been in cars, vans, buses, scooters, motorcycles, trains, boats, planes, even a bus transported by a boat and of course I...
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Performing meaningful work for Kiva while learning a new culture
Clara Vreeken, KF 14, Bolivia Clara volunteers as Kiva Fellow in Bolivia. She works for three micro finance institutions. She verifies borrowers’ data, implements changes and informs the lenders about...
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What women want in Bolivia
Clara Vreeken, KF 14, Bolivia Clara volunteers as Kiva Fellow in Bolivia. She works for the micro finance institutions IMPRO, Pro Mujer and Emprender. She visited a lot of borrowers, of whom many...
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Herbal tea and witch doctors
Clara Vreeken, KF 14, Bolivia Clara volunteered as Kiva Fellow in Bolivia. She worked for the micro finance institutions IMPRO, Pro Mujer and Emprender. In this blog she elaborates on health issues in...
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Microlending Behind the Scenes: How MFIs Judge Credit Worthiness
By Nila Uthayakumar, KF14, Uganda, With the help of several other Fellows in the field I’ve met all kinds of borrowers. From age 16 to 76; from orphans to a former beauty queen; from potato sellers to...
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Same Rung of the Ladder?
Eric Rindal - KF16 - Bolivia After Jeffrey Sachs started talking about ladders, rungs, and poverty, many wondered if there would be an end to poverty. The way he saw it was that if a developing country...
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Why micro loans; Why small business; and Why poverty
Eric Rindal - KF16 - La Paz, Bolivia Another day, another dollar lost as a volunteer. The first part of my second Fellowship has gone by tremendously fast. I only have two more months left of what will...
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Fifteen Dreams of Fifteen Kiva Borrowers
By Eric Rindal - KF16 - Bolivia Part of my Fellowship here in Bolivia is to complete two Borrower Verifications (BVs) for two Kiva partner microfinance intuitions: Emprender and IMPRO. During the BV, I...
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Why I Volunteer Abroad (with Kiva)
By Eric Rindal – KF 16 – Bolivia Before I volunteered as a Kiva Fellow in Sierra Leone (May of 2011) and Bolivia (September 2011), I was living in Santa Barbara, California. Imagine: Santa Barbara...
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Standouts in Bolivian microfinance: Spotlight on Kiva partners ProMujer and...
By Isabel Balderrama | KF 17 & KF18 | Bolivia On my last post I outlined some of the difficulties of working and living in Bolivia. Marches, protests, and strikes from nearly every sector of the...
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