WCCN's Newsletter, Summer 2009, Volume 25, No. 2

WCCN’s microfinance program has reached a milestone in accomplishing an important part of its mission: Now, over 1,000 individuals are supporting microfinance in Nicaragua by investing in the NICA Fund!

At our Annual Meeting this spring, WCCN commemorated its 25th anniversary. This important benchmark for our organization was a good opportunity to remember and thank our founders and long-term supporters, revisit our work over the years, and rethink our original mission and vision and how it has evolved and been reshaped over the years. WCCN’s approaches and tools have changed throughout our 25-year history, but our commitment to empowering the poor, with an strong focus on women, has not changed.

Eva Mendoza (left) touches base with an end borrower. Photo by Michael Kienitz.

Prior to Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Credisol, or the Local Development Fund of Honduras, had worked to help the poor of the Central Atlantic Region through development projects and training focused on overcoming the causes of poverty. However noble their projects at the time, Credisol was forced to re-evaluate its work in wake of the storm that then Honduran President Carlos Roberto Flores said destroyed 50 years of progress. Agriculture had played an important role in the regional economy for centuries and overnight, producers were left with flooded fields, dead or missing livestock, and destroyed infrastructure. This devastation spurred the development of Credisol’s microfinance program. Producers not only needed emergency relief assistance, but also financing that would put livelihoods back on the path to prosperity.

Left to right: Denis Galeano and Norma Muñoz, who are community leaders in the neighborhood of Grenada; Cony Rosales, HABITAR representative, and Ninette Morales, Executive Director of HABITAR. Photo by Mark Aumann.

For a moment, leave behind your comfortable home, expectations of what life will bring you tomorrow next month, next year. Leave behind your daily conveniences, appliances, smooth roads, bank account, ATM service, credit card, access to credit – in fact, leave behind all banking. Like some of the people we will meet, you have a few coins in your pocket, maybe a córdoba worth $.05 (current exchange rate). You dream of having a steady job so your child can have regular meals, a secure home and go to school. You have been unemployed most of your adult life, lucky to have finished 6th grade. You barely survive by scavenging and reselling items on the street.

Online platforms connecting lenders and investors with poor entrepreneurs in the developing world have revolutionized the way microfinance organizations are funded. Currently, Kiva and MicroPlace are the two online platforms that are available in the U.S. Considering how new they are, it is not always easy to understand the main differences between them. In this article, we will take a close look at both platforms to highlight their main differences and evaluate their outcomes to date.

Luis Alonso Mendoza Rodriguez shows off a sample of his bananas. Photo by Michael Kienitz.

Bananas are a way of life for Luis Alonso Mendoza Rodriguez. Living in a coastal climate conducive to their production, Luis says he works with bananas “all day, every day.” In 2006, Luis received his first microcredit loan from WCCN’s first Honduran partner agency, Credisol.