Kiva: page 8 of 14
March 2010
1st Mar: With the start of a new month, the loan to Ramil Abdullayev that was my
8,000th edit was released to lenders. I added $15 to the $10.31 in my Kiva account and made this my first loan of the month. As mentioned before, Ramil sells vegetables in Azerbaijan and wants to buy more vegetables to sell. My $25 goes towards the $2,000 that he is requesting.
15th Mar: The usual repayments came in. I now have $34.79 in my account ready to loan out again. Three of my loans finished their repayments this month and so are fully repaid: Loan 6 to Vann Uon in Cambodia, Loan 11 to Ysabel in Peru, and Loan 15 to Marina Denisova in Ukraine. Of my 20 loans, 11 are now repaid.
I was expecting a repayment instalment from Loan 16 to Peter in Ghana but it didn’t arrive yet.
16th Mar: I received two emails today. The first was from Chile reporting on earthquake damage and how it might affect loans to borrowers in that country. From the email it seems that Loan 17 to Los Esforzados De
Nueva Imperial Group is not affected as it is in an area not greatly affected by the earthquake.
The second email was from Ghana in respect of Loan 16 to Peter. It seems that a check made on the field partner that sourced the loan has shown deficiencies in their methods and controls. Work is being done to set up better systems and controls. I have to suppose that this is connected to the fact that Peter’s March loan repayment did not arrive.
18th Mar: Today I edited my 9,000th Kiva loan so, of course, I made this my next loan, my secon
d of the month. The loan is to Eliot Akatunanura, a farmer in Uganda who is married with two children. He needs $1,000 to buy manure and other supplies for his farm. With my $25 plus money from thirty-two other lenders, Eliot got his loan. He will repay it over the next fourteen months.
23rd Mar: I received another email today from Chile about the Los Esforzados de Nueva Imperial Group, to whom my 17th loan was made. The person writing the email said that “the member they contacted was Pedro, who is the president of the group. He is an artisan who works with wood and in the creation of kitchen utensils, earrings, brooches, yokes, and carts. Fortunately his city, Nueva Imperial, was one of the least affected by the earthquake, so Pedro's business and those of the other members of his group continue running, although more slowly.”
26th March: The repayment from Loan 16 to Peter came in today, 11 days late.
April 2010
15th Apr: The usual repayments came in except for Loan 16 to Peter in Ghana which will probably be a couple of days late as happened last month. I now have $45.30 in my account ready to loan out again. Two of my loans finished their repayments this month and so are fully repaid: Loan 10 to Jackelyn Eltagon (repaid two months early) and Loan 13 to Gerevasio Owembabazi's Group. Of my 21 loans, 13 are now repaid.
18th Apr: I made my 22nd loan to Juan Lorenzo Tello Cabrera who lives in Peru. Juan is 24 years old. He is single and lives in his father's house with his younger sister. His mother passed away. For three years he has been selling chicken and other poultry in the central market of Ferreñafe. He is requesting a loan of 2000 nuevos soles ($700) to improve his family’s housing. Due to the rains, water has been leaking in, deteriorating the structure.
23rd Apr: Today I edited my 10,000th Kiva loan! That’s quite a milestone for a process that started in March of last year: 405 days at an average of a fraction under 25 loans per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. At the onset, I made a commitment to myself to edit loans for at least a year; I accomplished that last month and now have extended it to accomplish 10,000 loans. What will the future bring?
My 10,000th edited loan was for Beou Chantha, a 27-year-old married woman who lives in Kampong Chnang Province in Cambodia. She operates a grocery store and wants to buy a sugarcane juice extractor to add to her store. This is her second loan from CREDIT, a long-standing Kiva partner in Cambodia. I added $10 to my Kiva account to bring my account up to $30.30 and then (of course!) made my 23rd loan to Beou Chantha.
The US$210 I have invested in Kiva has now provided 23 loans of $25 for a total of $575 in loans!
