Hi, I’m Kati, I began this blog as part of an application for a fellowship with Kiva, an online microfinance network.  Because some of the work I’ll be doing with Kiva will be journaling about the entrepreneurs that receive Kiva loans, the application asked that I interview a business owner in my community and profile them in a blog.  Thanks to the productive meeting with Seth Haber, and a few successful interviews of my own with Kiva, I got the fellowship position and will start in February!

Kiva partners with microfinance institutions (MFIs) in over 40 countries and links them and their borrowers to individuals worldwide who lend through Kiva.  I will be assigned to work with one of Kiva’s partner MFIs (as of yet, I still do not know to where) to help that organization implement Kiva’s business model, and to get to know local borrowers and their businesses.

If you’re someone interested in lending to micro-entrepreneurs through Kiva, you can look at borrower profiles on their website, which provide information on the borrower’s background, their business, and their credit status.  It’s the Kiva Fellows who are largely responsible for creating and maintaining those profiles; in essence, for creating the real-time link between borrowers, their local MFIs, Kiva’s headquarters, and the potential online lenders.  I will also be training staff members at the local MFI on Kiva policies and procedures, and training them on how to create and update borrower profiles.

My hope, in starting this blog now, is to familiarize myself with the blogging process (formats, etc.), and to get myself into a good writing rhythm.  We’ll see how it goes:)