If lending or donating is not enough…
July 5, 2010
… it is certainly possible to get engaged in organizations yourself. Today, I will tell you something about the work you can do at kiva.
The program is called kiva fellows. If you are a motivated person with certain core competencies such as speaking other languages, being really open and active and having the ability to take an effort and to take the initiative, then it might suit you. By the way, for those with a finance or business background: You have an advantage.
But what are you doing?
You’re literally send to a place where you work together with the MFIs (Micro Finance Institutions) and where you connect to borrowers. Also, you do the journey in the name of kiva.
Now, you think this just sounds too good. YES, it does… one part of being a kiva fellow means you’ll need to fundraise for the trip yourself. Whether it is kiva not having the funds themselves to pay for these expenses or not, you can imagine that it also shows a high degree of commitment.
This is essential as a kiva fellow is supposed to stay at least 4 month in a country where kiva engages in Microfinance.
When I spent a year in California, I was actually able to listen to a former kiva fellow who was holding a lecture at a community college in Los Altos Hills (kiva is an organization founded in San Francisco which is really close). I was really impressed by the stories she could tell, but she also mentioned problems kiva is working on and I thought this was a really good work.
If you want to look at some stories here is a blog where fellows from all over the world talk about their experiences!
So, at the end I think doing something and seeing how it works with your own eyes is great. So far I just didn’t decide whether I like the fundraising thing. I mean to conduct part of it is great and I know kiva is an organization living and paying its employees off the donations, but it is clearly not easy then to become a kiva fellow. Maybe you’ll need to take a microcredit too in order to do so… no just kidding, what do you think?
