Kiva Field Update - Message from Kiva Fellow in Nicaragua

My name is Karen. I came to Nicaragua as a Kiva Fellow volunteer for three months, to see for myself if small loans really can change lives. To be honest, some days I am still on the fence. Micro-finance is a mature industry in Nicaragua, fraught with competitive institutions and ethical growing pains. My expectation before arriving was that the loans would be very small and aimed at the poorest of the poor. For example, the chair maker who needed a few dollars to buy his own supplies, and so on. However, the loans I saw disbursed to Kiva borrowers in Nicaragua were on average $700, and the impact of those loans was more complicated than just altering the life of one person. For example, in the rural region where I worked, the farmers who had borrowed to invest in their crops, had workers depending on them for their jobs. As the chain of beneficiaries lengthens, so does those at risk. It was only when I went into the field, to talk with the farmer, that I understood that they really had no other choice for financing. They would take a loan, make their payments, and then take another loan, each time improving their lot just a bit more.

One Friday afternoon in March, I visited Kiva borrower Maria Guadalupe at her farm outside of Estelí, Nicaragua. Estelí is a commercial center, three hours north of Managua, and surrounded by small farms and beautiful mountains and forest.

I had been looking forward to this visit, because half of the loans from Kiva Field Partner, MíCrédito, in this region are for farmers, and most are to men supporting their families.

Maria Guadalupe started farming after her husband died, and she realized she had to do something to support her three children. Little by little she saved, and then began sowing the land he had left her. Over a period of twenty-five years, she was able to build her farm, adding livestock and chickens. She is now sixty-four years old, and has the help of one of her sons, and the farm workers she pays with the aid of her Kiva loan.

Maria\'s loan was disbursed by microfinance institution MíCrédito, and funded by Kiva lenders like you. I was visiting Maria Guadalupe in order to verify the details of her loan as seen on the Kiva website. She received a loan for $925 at the end of November 2010. The loan term was four months, with one payment due to MíCrédito in March 2011.

It is summer here in Nicaragua, and all around Estelí, the farmers are busy harvesting onions, sweet peppers, tomatoes, and cabbage. However, this year, many farmers are suffering, ironically so, from great harvests. For the first time in four years, the supply of onions was greater than the demand, and so the farmers received a third of the price they usually can expect from the market. Maria Guadalupe, concerned with the low price, was one of the lucky ones. She was able to export her onions to Costa Rica. In March, she paid her Kiva loan of $925 on time and in full.

That Friday afternoon, I asked Maria to show me her onion field. The sun was low in the sky, the soil baked dry, except where the hose, fed by a pump from the river, watered one row of onions at a time. Maria told me her dream was to one day dig a well in her field so she could irrigate her crops better. In the middle of her field, I stopped and asked her to pose for a photo. She made a fuss about dusting herself off, and removing her apron, and then in the last moment, she thought to pluck an onion from the soil to hold up as evidence of her success. Before we said good-bye, Maria chose a few of the best onions from her field as a gift, and still dripping with mud, we strapped them to the handlebars of the motorcycle for my ride back to Estelí.

The farmers who have received Kiva loans have used their earnings to pay the salaries of their workers, buy irrigation equipment and pick-up trucks to drive their produce to market, to improve their homes, to pay the school fees for their children, and more.

The other half of the Kiva loans disbursed in Estelí by MíCrédito, were to shopkeepers, beauticians, shoemakers, butchers, bakers, motorcycle repairman, tortilla makers, students, and on and on. These entrepreneurs are all part of what makes Estelí a vibrant center for business, and for that, the borrowers are thankful for their loans, and the staff at MíCrédito is hopeful they will be able to expand further into rural areas.

Karen Gray, KF14