The reason for Kiva's success is no secret. Kiva has seen such amazing growth thanks to involvement from such a large, vibrant community of participants. At Kiva, we like to call this our 'Ecosystem'. The Kiva Ecosystem is made up of infinite components. We have chosen 10 contributors of the Ecosystem that we think give a great view into some special parts of how Kiva works. This post will look into the life of a Kiva Coordinator at one of our Field Partner MFIs. Read about Sandra's place in getting funds to the borrowers, receiving their loan payments, and ensuring that their stories are transferred back to Kiva for our lenders to read!
My name is Sandra and I am a 24-year-old Nicaraguan woman. I have 5 siblings, my family is very hard working, and my mother taught us many values. I am thankful for the sacrifices she has made so I could finish my studies. I was able to obtain an opportunity working in the Fundacion Leon 2000 based in Leon, Nicaragua. I am the Kiva Coordinator, which means I am in charge the Kiva loan portfolio at our MFI.
My job starts at 7:00 in the morning and I work until 5:00 in the evening. I perform many different tasks at Fundacion Leon 2000 for our partnership with Kiva. I coordinate the posting of loans and journal updates from our Kiva borrowers to the website. We have posted loans from almost 4,400 entrepreneurs that have loaned a total of over $2 million USD to our borrowers. Everyday I receive emails with different stories and photos from individual loan officers in our organization at the 7 branches our MFI has. These loan officers meet with our clients every week and communicate their successes, needs for new loans, and repayment updates to me so I can share them. I then prepare these stories for the team at Kiva to review and post them. The Fundacion Leon has 7 branches, all that send me their information from the entrepreneurs who are going to be posted on Kiva.org.
My work colleagues’ names are Yubelka and Maya and they are very responsible and dedicated women. They are very knowledgeable of the politics and work methodology of Kiva.
We love working with Kiva because of the way our clients get to engage with the community of lenders through sharing their photographs. We also really love getting to know the Kiva Fellows who come to our offices on their fellowships.
Please read more about Fundacion Leon 2000 or lend to one of our entrepreneurs!
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