WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009 - (Page 10)

Microfinance TAKING PEACE CORPS BACK INTO ThE FIELD A Kiva Fellow draws on her Peace Corps experience by Jessica Benton Cooney wo days after returning to the United States from her three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador, Ashley Nelsen watched a PBS special on Kiva, the world’s first online microfinance lender and was “blown away.” Inspired by how effective and transparent the process was, she said she immediately started lending on the Kiva website and applied for a Kiva Fellowship, which included a T series of interviews, some in Spanish. Kiva, whose mission is to “connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty,” was first started in 2005, and means “unity” or “agreement” in Swahili. They currently work in 44 countries, and have over 480,000 lenders that have parsed out almost 100,000 loans. The Kiva Fellowship will be the last leg in Nelsen’s master’s program at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies, from which she will graduate in August with a master’s degree in International Environmental Policy. After that she wants to work in the field of “green” microfinancing and development. In addition to adding fodder to her thesis, Nelsen largely credits her Peace Corps experience for the desire to head back into the field this past January with Kiva and for giving her Continued on page 12 Analin Saturria Kiva Fellow ashley nelsen follows up with successful Kiva entrepreneur Cloreta Yan, in “Batey 16.” Yan used her loan to buy basic food items to start a small store in her village. 10 Summer 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009

WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
Contents
More Peace Corps Campaign: Better and Bolder!
Africa Rural Connect
Readers Write
You Too Can Be Bill Gates
Taking Peace Corps Back into the Field
Come for the Information, Stay for the Dancing
A “Green” Community Rising
Microfinance Pioneer Receives 2009 Shriver Award
The Colombia Project
A Voice for the Unheard
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Microfinance Podcasts
Selected Microfinance Resources
Bicycle! Bamenda! Orange!
Luck and Fame
A Step in the Right Direction
Bringing What She Loves
Letter from Botswana: First Tongues of the Kalahari
Letter from Tanzania: Homo Sapien in Africa
In the Beginning (There Was John)
The Peace Corps Community Making a Difference
Community News
Advertiser Index

WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009

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