BPW Patan

This was my last week in Nepal and I was able to meet some fantastic people and get some great work done for Kiva. Kiva just signed up its first field partner in Nepal, BPW (Business and Professional Women) of Patan, a town just outside of Kathmandu. The group has 33 members who are influential and highly-skilled women, bankers, professors, entrepreneurs. They have been running a hugely successful Microcredit program for the last 5 years, so successful that they have a 100% repayment rate. Demand for the small loans has been growing and they have partnered with Kiva to bring in funds.

After my initial office meeting, we headed into the country side to attend a center meeting. The center is where all the action takes place. After an area is surveyed for poverty levels, word is put out BPW micro loans will be available. First all those interested attend a week-long intensive training course, covering loan terms, structure, group dynamics and more. One day is spent teaching the borrowers how to sign their names as this is necessary to accept a loan, but most do not know how to beforehand.

After the training, potential borrowers must group up in 5's and a minimum of 10 are needed, max of 40 or 8 groups, to form a center. After creating individual plans for a small business, a member requests a loan, first loans are $150 and subsequent loans can increase by $60, with a loan term of 12 months. Then all of the center members vote to accept or reject the plan. The reason being is that all members guarantee each loan, so if a person defaults the other members must repay the loan. As all center members live in the same area, this type of peer pressure insure smart decisions on borrowers side.

During the center meeting I attended, the event started of with some group solidarity and self-improvement songs. After that the loan officers collected the monthly repayment from each borrower. Finally, a new borrower requested her first loan, and the other 39 members voted, with a majority agreeing. This loan was for a Mrs.Beana, and after the meeting we walked 10 minutes to visit her home.

Mrs.Beana has an unemployed husband and two daughters in middle school. Her mother-in-law also lives with them. Mrs.Beana's husband is the youngest son in his family, and it is Nepali tradition that mothers live with their youngest son. Mrs.Beana currently owns two small cows, and every day walks through the neighborhood selling pure, fresh cow milk door to door.

She lives in a neighborhood on the far outskirts of kathmandu. Until recently it was primarily a poor farming village. But now rich nepalis are buying plots of land from the farmers and the area is currently half residential and half farming, but the homes are continuing to go up. As a result Mrs.Beana has a growing demand for her milk, and is planning to use the loan to buy another cow, increase milk production, and add to her family's income.

For me this visit was fantastic, because i was able to witness the ability of microcredit to empower the impoverished.

The rest of the week I spent with BPW staff in meetings and at a computer going over the in's and out's of Kiva and how best to utilize the relationship. I have high hopes for BPW. As soon as they finalize approval from the Nepal central bank to receive funds from abroad, you'll soon see profiles of borrowers on the kiva website.

Here's my pics from the week with BPW-http://www.tedfischer.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b3526456650a