A Mainstreet Microfinance Mission
On one of my very first missions as a Kiva Fellow, I wandered through a maze of food cart vendors searching for a borrower. A newbie to the profession, I thought his address would be enough to locate him to take a the photo needed for his profile. As anyone who has ever tried to find anything in a developing country, region, or neighborhood will tell you, I needed much more than just an address. I was surrounded by food carts in all directions, slinging everything from fruit and pretzels to dumplings and falafel. Where was I? Not in India, or Kenya, or Guatemala. No, I was in downtown Manhattan.
As a Kiva Fellow for ACCION USA, I learned that New York borrowers were more similar to international borrowers than not. If 75% of ACCION USA’s borrowers are immigrants, it’s even possible that some of them could have been microloan borrowers in their home country before applying at ACCION USA!
Perhaps one of the most revolutionary aspects of ACCION USA’s jump into the person-to-person lending market is just that: the divide between Kiva lenders and borrowers has grown much smaller. As one Kiva/ACCION USA lender recently conveyed to me, her son was inspired by Ray’s business in Atlanta. Her son receives his allowance in Kiva cash, and he is an avid lender. Seeing a successful small business being built closer to home has inspired him, and has made the other business he sees around the world that much more real and respected.
My last attempt to contact the elusive food cart borrower landed me at a hot dog cart smack dab in the spot where my guy had been 10 minutes prior. I decided to strike up conversation with his replacement.
“So where are you from?” I asked.
“Bangladesh,” he said- sounded like music to my ears. I bought the quintessential NYC treat from him, as we chatted about Muhammad Yunus and the American dream. We both concluded that New York City is an incredible and magical city. I couldn’t have asked for a better end to my Kiva mission – to learn that microentrepreneurs here in the U.S. are as inspiring and resourceful as those in the developing world.
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Erica Dorn served as Kiva’s first domestic Fellow, she now coordinates the Kiva program at ACCION USA. Learn more about Erica’s U.S. microlending adventures at Vimeo.
Tags: accion, accion usa, erica dorn, kiva, kiva.org, microfinance, Muhammad Yunus, us microfinance, Yunus