Drew Kinder

 

Kolping House

Thanks to Drew Kinder, recently returned Kiva Fellow, I was able to stay at Kampala Kolping House for my first week of (and an easy transition to) Kampala life. Coming back after my first full day at the Life in Africa office, on my last night at Kolping House, I found the following to [...]

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Farewell Uganda!

I am writing from Buffalo NY upon the completion of my three month commitment as a Kiva Fellow in Uganda.  I want to use my final post on the Kiva Fellows Blog to thank the people who made this one of the most significant and rewarding experiences of my life.
KIVA.ORG:  First, thank you Matt and [...]

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Post-Conflict Education in Uganda

Kampala, Uganda    “Poverty reduction is a three legged stool balanced on income generation, savings, and education” according to Mr. Knondoker Ariful Islam, BRAC Uganda Country Manager. “Take one leg away and the stool tips over.”
While Kiva social lenders are focused on the income generating leg of poverty reduction, this discussion pertains to the education leg; [...]

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“Double Bottom Line” Loans

Kampala, Uganda    A loan funded by Kiva social lenders benefits the Microfinance Institution (MFI), the lender, as well as the poor borrower.   The MFI potentially earns gross profit from the loan to sustain its business and, in the case of a MFI structured as a for-profit company, to generate a financial return for the owners.
Where [...]

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Kiva Friends Donate $4,430 to Mirembe Youth Development Projects

Kampala, Uganda. On Saturday, January 26, 2008 I had the honor and pleasure of presenting a check in the amount of $7,389,750 Uganda Shillings (US $4,430) from Kiva Friends to Florence Kaluuba and the Mirembe Youth Development Projects.

The purpose of this blog is to report back to the generous donors at http://www.kivafriends.org/ who contributed [...]

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Regina

How does a 48 year old widow in Uganda with no job, no savings, very little education, and no business training provide for eleven orphans, ranging in age from 9 to 17?
One answer is to take out a US $180 micro-loan from BRAC Uganda and work very hard to establish and operate two successful small [...]

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Christmas in Uganda

Gifts are on my mind as Christmas approaches.
 I won’t be home on December 25 so I’m not thinking of material gifts, like the ones we wrap and place under the Christmas tree.  I’m thinking of the gifts Ugandans share with each other every day of the year.
Here are some of the unique gifts I will [...]

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Mirembe Youth Development Project

Kampala, Uganda Florence Kaluuba is a soft spoken 50 year old school principal who won’t accept no for an answer.
As a teenager she was a brilliant student, excelling in mathematics. At a time when she ranked 8th out of 160 students, her uncle refused to allow her to enroll in the next higher grade level, [...]

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FAQ’s

Friends and family have asked about the mundane details of my life as a Kiva Fellow in Uganda. “Where do you live?”and “What is your job?” are two frequently asked questions (FAQ’s).
Where I live: I am a resident of the Kolping Guest House on Bombo Road in the Bwaise neighborhood of Kampala. The Kolping is [...]

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Microfinance Plus-Plus

Kampala, Uganda   I’m learning there is more to microfinance than simply loaning money to poor people. My boss at Share an Opportunity (SAO) took me on a field trip to Ngogwe, a village about 40 miles outside of Kampala, to show me what he calls “Microfinance Plus-Plus”.
The elements of SAO’s “Microfinance Plus-Plus” are;
1. Rural Development. [...]

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Meet Samuel “Sam” Mayanja Ssekajja, Manager of Share an Opportunity Micro-finance Ltd, Kampala, Uganda

David Groves is a hero.  I will probably never meet him, but if I do, I will shake his hand and thank him for boarding an airplane in Australia bound for Kampala, Uganda in 1991, armed with nothing more than the name of the author of an article published in the Baptist Union General Society [...]

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Arrival in Uganda

My name is Drew Kinder.  I am a Kiva Fellow from Buffalo, NY assigned to Share an Opportunity (SAO), a Micro-Finance Institution (MFI) headquartered in Kampala, Uganda.
Although my future postings will be about the borrowers I meet in Uganda, this first blog answers the question of how I ended up in Uganda volunteering for three [...]

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