Financial Services
Blog Post: Posted August 4, 2010, 7:49 am by Usniaty Umayah
Vote now to help bring healthier food to children!
Over the past several months, we've posted many articles about our Kedai Balitaku (My Child's Café) programme to help bring healthy food to Indonesia children. You may have read about it — and now's your chance to help us do more with the programme!
Five-year-old Wulan, eating a natural orange fruit bar, is of of thousands of children that our Kedai Balitaku (My Child's Café) programme is helping. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
From now through Wednesday, August 11, you can vote for Kedai Balitaku in the Changemakers Business for Social Change competition. Your vote will get us closer to winning a £3,000 grant that will go toward improving our work.
We're proud to be one of only 12 finalists in the competition, chosen from 448 entries from 78 countries!
As one of the managers for this healthy food initiative, I submitted our programme to the competition in order to share our experience with organisations, people and countries that face the same problems in preventing malnutrition and fighting poverty. I think this is a good chance for others to learn from us, as well as for us to get feedback and find resources that will help us do even more for the children of Indonesia.
My vision is to provide more access to healthy food for children under five in some of Indonesia's biggest cities, as well as help create economic opportunities for entrepreneurs in poor urban neighborhoods. This project can truly have a positive impact on not just families, but entire communities.
If I won this competition, the money will be used for establishing new food carts as small businesses to sell healthy food, as well as managing and scaling up the overall programme so that it moves closer to becoming a self-sustaining enterprise.
All we need is your vote! Please head over to the Changemakers website and give us your support. Thank you for your time, and we'll keep reporting on our progress in helping bring both healthy food and economic opportunity to Indonesia's cities!
Blog Post: Posted June 1, 2010, 8:45 am by Kokoévi Sossouvi
Encouraging small business in Haiti
Country: Haiti
Although I've sort of always known that one day I would come to work in Haiti, January 12 made me realize that the time was now.
I lost a dear friend of mine in the earthquake, to whom I had promised to come to Haiti. I had no choice but to keep my word and change the course of my life.
Nothing had ever made more sense to me than on March 4, when I moved to Haiti to take the position of Mercy Corps' Economic Recovery Programme Manager. I wanted to come to Haiti to have an impact, not just be another aid worker. Equipped with a Master's degree in Chinese and Business and strong international experience in both the humanitarian and private sectors, I was looking for a role that would best suit my skills set. The need to do things differently and think outside the box attracted me to Mercy Corps, which has such a strong reputation for innovation.
Less than one percent of Haiti's small business owners are formally trained in their areas of operation. Photo: Karl Grobl for NetAid
Today, my work in Haiti touches many areas. The support of small and medium enterprises (SME) is particularly fascinating. Mercy Corps Haiti is in the process of developing a range of solutions to support this as-yet highly informal growth sector, which is nonetheless engine of Haiti's economy.
Because less than one percent of SME owners are formally trained in their areas of operation, we are planning vocational training support. Because access to credit is a strong impediment to growth, we are planning to set up an investment facility. Because the provision of business development services is lacking, we are planning to bring MicroMentor to Haiti. Because SME start-ups are highly neglected, we are planning partnering with other programmes to set up business plan competitions, as well as training on writing and pitching skills.
But SME — which includes the Job creation programme supported by our MPower initiative — is only one of the areas Mercy Corps is working on for Haiti's economic recovery and development. My team will keep you updated on our progress.
Blog Post: Posted December 23, 2009, 8:09 pm by Joy Portella
"Intelligent Investing" with Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps President Nancy Lindborg was recently interviewed by Steve Forbes about social entrepreneurship, microfinance and other topics. Take a look at the latest episode of "Intelligent Investing with Steve Forbes" to find out how we approach the world's biggest challenges a bit differently.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/16/lindborg-mercy-corps-intelligent-investing-video.html
Blog Post: Posted November 9, 2009, 2:11 am by Julisa Tambunan
Morning mood
Country: Indonesia
I’ve never considered myself a morning person. I keep telling people how my brain works better after the sun goes down but, really, I think my main problem simply lies in the waking-up-early-morning part. For that reason, people who can start a day at the earliest time — feeling energized by the sunshine like they can rule the world when the morning comes — always amaze me.
And so, yesterday I found myself struck in amazement again.
It was Sunday, seven o'clock in the morning in Penjaringan — the largest slum in Jakarta. I have developed a particular attachment to this place over the last two years that I've worked for Mercy Corps, mostly because the community there has always been successful in making me stand in awe. And, as I dragged my half-asleep body up there through the morning mist, I encountered some even more awe-inspiring moments than ever before.
Through Western Union’s Our World, Our Family (OWOF) project, Mercy Corps provides financial literacy education in the form of a cost-free training for the urban poor — specifically migrants — in several areas in Jakarta. The trainers are people who come from these communities and have taken classes from Mercy Corps educators in preparation for this work.
Iday, a 37-year-old resident of Jakarta's Penjaringan neighborhood, conducts a financial literacy class as part of Mercy Corps' Western Union-supported Our World, Our Family programme. Photo: Julisa Tambunan/Mercy Corps
Yesterday morning was the kickoff for this financial literacy training series in one part of Penjaringan — it will be conducted weekly in other selected neighborhoods over the next two months. I came to Penjaringan with Elanvito, the Project Coordinator for OWOF, and a cameraman to document the process as well as interview some of the beneficiaries.
And so came Awestruck Moment No. 1: the trainer, a 37-year-old man named Iday whom I have met few times, greeted me cheerfully as I walked in to the training room. “Good morning, beautiful! Doesn’t the morning look beautiful?” The morning was indeed pretty, the sun shone up so brightly that it burned my sleepy eyes. But it’s his spirit that woke me up.
Iday is one of the few members of his community that is always actively involved in Mercy Corps projects. He volunteered to be one of the trainers for this project because he believed that he should do something for his neighborhood.
“This room is used to park motorcycles in the evening. We repainted it so it could look presentable enough to hold a training. We can’t afford an air conditioning, but there’s a fan and we could open the door like this. I am so excited!” he exclaimed.
That was Awestruck Moment No. 2.
The tiny room was full of participants eager to learn from the early-morning financial literacy class conducted by a Mercy Corps-trained local teacher. Photo: Julisa Tambunan for Mercy Corps
So first, the participants were divided into two classes: the Sunday morning batch and a Sunday afternoon batch. (There will also be Saturday afternoon batch starting next week.) We waited a little longer until all the participants arrived. There were so many people coming, on that very early Sunday morning, that the crowd exceeded the capacity of the room. Soon it became very hot inside, but people just didn’t feel it.
When Iday asked some of the participants to come in the afternoon instead —because almost half of them had not been registered yet — they protested: “We want the morning session because it’s the time when we are still fresh and can think clearly.”
I had my Awestruck Moment No. 3.
So the training began, with about 30 people crammed inside that tiny room, when there were supposed to be only 15 people attending. The training was so lively. Everyone was very enthusiastic and energetic.
It was also so funny, because I was there until the afternoon when the second class took place and, in contrast, there were only five people attending that class! I asked one of them why they chose the afternoon class, and they answered, “The morning class were already full.” Wow.
And Iday was something else. He delivered the training in a remarkable way, especially considering that he'd never facilitated such a class in his life, besides participating in the five-day Mercy Corps workshop that prepared him for this work. When I asked what made him seemingly unstoppable today — especially in the morning class — he softly answered, “Mornings make me feel brand new. I feel like I can conquer the world, and not when the world is sleeping, but when the world is waking up.”
His philosophy — and all those awestruck moments — made me seriously think about changing my sleep pattern.
Blog Post: Posted October 8, 2009, 12:02 am by Katherine Hollis
Microfinance and development in Kyrgyzstan
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Kompanion News is distributed in Kyrgyzstan to highlight the development work that Mercy Corps and Kompanion, Mercy Corps’ microfinance institution, undertake in the country. Through financial and development services at the household level, Kompanion seeks to address some of the country’s development challenges and contribute to the strengthening of communities through sustainable development.
This newsletter features major initiatives that focus on issues of organic agricultural and waste management practices. It also highlights a lack of knowledge in rural communities as part of a broader goal of promoting natural resources conservation and good management practices by using a science-based, ethno-ecological approach. Kompanion News tells the stories of individuals who have benefited from doing business with Kompanion, and the multi-faceted support they received, not only through microfinance loans, but also through Kompanion’s development services and initiatives focused on community development.
You can read the latest issue of Kompanion News here: http://www.mercycorps.org/publications/16558
Coping with the Economic Crisis:
Blog Post: Posted September 9, 2009, 11:28 am by Fatou Ali
Video: Fatou Ali gets economic independence
Country: Central African Republic
Hello, my name is Fatou Ali, I'm in Central African Republic.
Today, I found economic independence by getting credit, which allowed me to start a business.
Previously, I led a quiet life with my husband. He had a garage (car repair shop) which allowed him to care for his household by buying food and clothing and paying for health care and schooling for the children. But then life got hard because the repair shop failed. With the little money I had, I tried to start a business, but it didn't work because I lacked the capital I needed. With the advent of Mercy Corps' programme here, I discussed our situation with my husband who allowed me to join one of the Village Savings and Loan (VSL) groups.
Thanks to Mercy Corps, I received a loan that has allowed me to trade. Now I sell corn flour and sugar which provides me with an income.
Today I can support my family by providing food for our table, schooling for the kids, and being able to pay for their health care and clothing.
This experience has given me the courage to speak with other Muslim women and encourage them to discuss their business ideas with their husbands. Other women that join VSL groups can benefit from credit like I did, to develop an income generating activity for the good of their household and the future of their children.
I strongly urge other Muslim women to join community groups and enjoy benefits such as the credit I received which has served me well. Thank you.
My name is Fatou Ali, I'm in Bouar in Central African Republic.
Coping with the Economic Crisis:
Blog Post: Posted September 8, 2009, 3:14 pm by Roger Burks
A harsh reality for Mongolia's herders
Country: Mongolia
I just listened to a piece on NPR (National Public Radio) about how the global financial crisis continues to plague one of the world's most remote places: Mongolia. Even though analysts are reporting that most markets have begun to emerge from the crisis, Mongolia's people — particularly herders, who comprise 40 percent of Mongolia's population — are still feeling the worst of it.
As a relatively isolated country that mostly exports raw materials like wool, cashmere and metals, Mongolia began to experience the crisis a bit later than other countries. But when it came, it hit hard: market prices for cashmere were suddenly cut in half because of lagging sales on the world market.
Faced with the harsh realities of the global economic crisis, Mongolian herders are having to make hard decisions to support their families. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
Lower prices for commodities like cashmere have ravaged the Mongolian economy: today at least 25 percent of workers are unemployed, more than two and a half times the current unemployment rate here in the United States. In Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital and largest city, wages for day laborers are down by 60 percent.
And, as in the United States, Mongolia's people — especially nomads — are struggling to repay loans that they'd taken out under much different circumstances. Thousands of families are now having to sell off their livestock herds, their source of meeting household needs and means of surviving the countries long, harsh winters.
For a decade, Mercy Corps' Gobi Initiative has been helping rural agricultural families diversify their incomes to survive crises like this. You can read more about some of the people we're proud to serve in Boundless Horizons, a series of stories I wrote after a trip to Mongolia last year. Mercy Corps programmes are helping 640,000 Mongolians — more than 20 percent of the country's entire population.
Of course I wonder how the many families I met on my journey are doing. Having seen their hard work and successes up close, I feel confident that they are handling the strain much better than some of their neighbors. Still, the harsh realities of life in Mongolia — weather, distance, isolation — are so much different than what we're used to.
Where most of us live, the global financial crisis has meant hard decisions on what we should buy. When we could buy it. What we could afford. What we should do without. But it has never been a question of survival.
Across the Gobi Desert today, survival is precisely the question. What will families do when their herds are gone but loans remain?
Blog Post: Posted August 14, 2009, 7:41 pm by Roger Burks
Crickets, crackers and chairs
Country: Indonesia
Neng received a one million Indonesian rupiah loan to expand the cricket farm she runs with her husband. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
Yesterday and today couldn’t have been more different, save for one similarity: both days we were learning about Bank Andara’s programmes. But while yesterday we were in a bank tower 28 floors up, today we were in a small village outside the city of Bandung, two hours south of Jakarta.
We were there to visit Bank Arthaguna Mandiri, a small microfinance institution (MFI) that Bank Andara has helped to capitalize. Earlier this year, this rural MFI received one billion Indonesian rupiah (about £60,000) from Bank Andara to provide more loans and extend financial services to women around the area.
All of Bank Arthaguna Mandiri’s 1,000 clients are women. While women operate what seems like the majority of small businesses in this part of Indonesia, they often have trouble getting access to business-building loans for many reasons, including lack of collateral. Bank Arthaguna Mandiri helps to organise lending groups, made up of a couple dozen members, giving them five months of helpful financial lessons before disbursing loans to individuals.
Today, all 24 members of the Kartini credit group — named after a local heroine and pioneer of women’s rights — are receiving their first loans from the bank. The average loan is one million Indonesian rupiah (£60), which might not seem like a lot, but it’s an amount that can mean a big difference to an up-and-coming business.
One million rupiah means about three kilograms of cricket eggs for 38-year-old Neng, mother of two and the only bug farmer I’ve ever met. After the initial purchase of eggs and construction of incubator boxes at 80,000 Indonesian rupiah (US $8) each, the crickets only need leafy greens, a little chicken feed and warmth to multiply and grow. And Neng can sell a kilogram of fully-grown grasshoppers to poultry farmers for 35,000 Indonesian rupiah (£2).
She sells up to 50 kilograms of crickets every week — but her husband, Suganda, likes to sample them first, telling me, Julisa and Thatcher they’re a delicacy in the village he comes from. Neng won’t let him cook crickets in her house, so he usually just pops a couple fresh ones in his mouth.
I didn’t indulge my curiosity.
Senior Writer Roger Burks (right) sits with 72-year-old Ma Oneng, grandmother of shopkeeper and loan recipient Imas. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
One million rupiah means more inventory for 34-year old Imas’s warung, or small grocery stall. She has the most kinds of crackers I’ve ever seen around here, especially in a kiosk like this. Crackers — made from rice or cassava, flavored with fish and other things — are an essential part of Indonesian cuisine. Back at our hotel in Jakarta, there’s even a “cracker corner” in the restaurant.
Imas needs to sell a lot of crackers to pay school fees for her two children. Her grandmother — 72-year-old Ma Oneng, one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet — helps out with the family business.
One million rupiah means that 35-year-old Ai can buy finishing tools, varnish and sandpaper for her family’s furniture business, Laksana Mebel. “Laksana” means “fulfilled,” as in the dream she’s helped her husband fulfill for the last 18 years. Their cottage factory produces about six table-and-chair sets a week from a local wood called jati, and employs seven local craftsmen. Ai hopes that she’ll be able to hire more workers soon, to help them fulfill their own hopes of a steady job.
After an amazing lunch of Sundanese kebabs, rice and sauce — I am convinced that Indonesian food is the best in the world — we were on our way back to Jakarta. Because of traffic, it took us nearly four hours to reach the neighborhood where the Mercy Corps office is located.
I thought of a lot of things while trapped in the car, especially what life might be like as a cricket farmer. But I still didn’t regret my decision to not sample the crop.
Blog Post: Posted August 13, 2009, 12:37 pm by Roger Burks
28 stories
Country: Indonesia
View of Jakarta from Bank Andara's offices. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
To be completely honest, going into a tall bank building this morning was the most unnatural I’ve felt on this trip. In the neighborhood alleyways and along the village paths I’ve walked on other days here in Indonesia, I’ve been given easy smiles. I’ve fallen into fascinating conversations. I’ve explored with all senses.
The cold marble walls of skyscrapers lack the chaos and life of places like Penjaringan or Kalibaru. We pass through multiple security checkpoints, entering a world of distrust that — although warranted by recent events — feels anything but welcoming, unlike the villages we visited in Aceh. These are huge empty spaces; I prefer the intimacy of a home or the shade of a tree. We file into an elevator and others shuffle in after us, but no one talks, moves or looks around. I quietly make jokes with my friends Thatcher and Julisa as we’re lifted 28 stories to our destination.
I am underdressed, hair too long and shirt untucked. I feel like a curiosity in this world of bankers.
But, when I reach the top floor of this tower and meet some of the folks at Bank Andara, I realize we’re all doing our jobs for the same reasons: to help impoverished families overcome their challenges and build more prosperous lives. Our clothes and tools may be different, but we’re all in this together.
Mercy Corps founded Bank Andara in May 2008, with start-up funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to provide loans and financial services to Indonesia’s multitude of microfinance institutions (MFIs). There are an astounding 50,000 MFIs in this country, serving more than 40 million people, but about 50 million Indonesians still don’t have access to any banking systems. And millions of people around Indonesia really need access to life-changing assistance like this: nearly half of the country’s population lives on less than $2 a day.
Bank Andara’s goal is to infuse small, local and mostly-rural MFIs with sufficient capital to reach out to extremely poor families, offering them the chances that other banks couldn’t afford to give them.
Supriyono explains Bank Andara's various products and services to me. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
It’s fascinating, really, but I am no economist: I tell Supriyono, Bank Andara’s Product Development Head, that I only earned a “C” in that course in college. But I am not being fully honest. I actually failed Economics earlier in my schooling and had to retake the course.
The way Supriono explains everything makes perfect sense, though: he talks about how he envisions rural citizens conducting their banking through mobile phones. He discusses giving small MFIs the liquidity to expand their range of products and services. He foresees clients being able to pay their utility bills, health care costs and childrens’ school tuition through the bank accounts they could never even get before.
I talk with a couple of guys about centralized software systems that link clients, MFIs and Bank Andara in a true network for good. While I’ve heard about the development of Bank Andara for much of the last couple years, I’d never quite understood the technical specifications it would take to revolutionize the microfinance industry — but visionaries like Richard Maramis and Mulyono Junaidi, information technology specialists, are figuring out the best ways to connect hard-working people with opportunity.
I still won’t pretend to know things like differences in guaranteed lending rate between commercial and rural banks, but Bank Andara is on top of that. And, even though the gleaming corridors of a banking tower are far from my preferred habitat, it’s amazing to think that a banker on the 28th story of a Jakarta office building and a struggling mother in a tiny village can work together to change the world.
Indian Ocean Tsunami: Five Years Later:
Blog Post: Posted August 8, 2009, 3:46 am by Roger Burks
Today is sweet
Country: Indonesia
Ita Riani holding her 4-year-old daughter Putri, with Ita's mother Sauda in the background. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
When we were flying in over the blue sea waves lapping the shores of Banda Aceh earlier today, I thought, “This is where it happened.” I imagined the water pulling back from the shore with a horrific sucking sound before the sea hurled itself miles ashore.
As the plane banked, headed for the runway, I saw the lush green hills and remembered stories of families running for the hills to escape the tsunami’s onslaught. In those first few days of aftermath, our staff reported that survivors spent up to five days on those hillsides, catching their food from the seawater that had drowned their homes and neighbors.
We can all recall the pictures of post-tsunami Banda Aceh: the solitary mosque standing among blocks of flattened houses, the debris-choked water, boats thrown far inland into what had been neighborhoods. More than 160,000 people died here. I was sure that the city would bear many scars from the catastrophe.
But, as we drove through the city, I saw that most signs of the tsunami were man-made: a lot of memorials built by governments around the world. A couple of boats left where they landed to show nature’s frightening strength.
The city has moved on. It is covered in flowers, growing upward and thriving. People have even returned to the beaches for lazy days spent with family and friends, drinking fresh coconut water in the shade of gazebos.
And this miraculous recovery was driven by things as small and sweet as a cake.
Sauda prepares traditional kekara, sweet rice cakes for Acehnese weddings. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
In the months that followed the tsunami, Banda Aceh witnessed a curious trend: a flurry of weddings between survivors, many of whom had lost their spouses to the disaster. But there were no shops from which to buy kekara, the sweet, crunchy traditional rice cake eaten at Acehnese weddings.
Ita Riani saw an opportunity — an obligation, really — and stepped in. She gathered nine of her friends and neighbors and applied for a small business loan through a Mercy Corps-supported local bank. They put out the word, took their first wedding orders, bought the ingredients and prepared the elaborate desserts.
Ita’s group does things the old way: they grind the rice using ages-old wooden tools. If it’s a big wedding, it might take her group a full 24 hours to make everything. But their time and commitment have paid off: each member is making about two million Indonesian rupiah (£120) each month. That’s enough to pay the household expenses, their children’s school fees and even save a little money while continuing to expand the business.
Today, they’re taking some of their orders over cell phone text messaging and planning to move their operations from their individual kitchens to a rented storefront on one of Banda Aceh’s main streets.
When I flew into Banda Aceh, I was expecting the worst. But, after seeing the place and talking to many people, it seems like life here has never been better.
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