Tag: Pakistan

Kiva loan Number 27

Seth Anderson0 comment

My 27th Kiva.org loan is the first that I noticed where the lender is located in Pakistan. Doesn’t mean much, just first I’ve noticed.

National Bank of Pakistan

Naseem shakil lives in the city of Riwind, in Pakistan, with her husband and two children. Both of her children attend school. Her husband has a job in the factory while she sells milk and has some buffaloes at her house. She wants to buy another buffalo because she thinks that she can increase her income by increasing the amount of milk and making more clients.

There is potential in her business because milk is the product which is used in every house and if she has more milk to sell then she can earn more money.

She is applying loan for her second loan from Asasah. Her first experience was good and she is hopeful that the results from this loan will be even better.

Note: “In this photo, Hamedi, the group member, is doing her household work and other members are helping her except Amna who is doing embroider works”.

Important Information About This Loan Asasah is the Kiva Field Partner in Pakistan that manages this loan. Though the State Bank of Pakistan has approved repayments on outstanding funds as of November 25th, 2009, it has come to Kiva’s attention that, due to the unique nature of Kiva’s model, future repayments to Kiva lenders could be subject to a case-by-case review by the State Bank of Pakistan. We want to make all Kiva lenders who are considering lending to entrepreneurs working with Asasah aware that, by lending to these entrepreneurs, they are taking on the additional risk that there may be an indefinite delay in repayments. Kiva will continue to work with Asasah on behalf of Kiva lenders to resolve any repayment issues should they arise.

Please note this Field Partner is “atypical” among Kiva’s partner base as they have not been visited by any members of Kiva’s staff. Because of on-going security concerns, due diligence and monitoring have been conducted remotely. This partner does, however, meet all of the minimum criteria for partnership with Kiva.

(click to continue reading Kiva – Naseem Shakil Muhammad Shakil Shahid’s Group from Pakistan has a loan funded through Kiva.)

Of the 27 loans I’ve made through Kiva, 15 have already been repaid, 10 are in the process of being repaid, and the delinquency rate is zero. Not bad, not bad at all.

Devon Avenue is a mini-Kashmir

Seth Anderson1 Comment

National Bank of Pakistan

Weather permitting, I like to take willing tourists on a walking tour of West Devon Avenue. Chicago is an international city, with more variety than simply Millennium Park and Museum Campus, it just takes a little energy to seek out this aspect of Chicago.

Roshni Boutique

Mr. Kagdi’s shop is located at one of Chicago’s more unusual street corners. Neighbors who inhabit the red and yellow brick walk-up apartments that surround the store come largely from an area of the world that fights over the Kashmir Valley, which lies in the middle of the rivalry between India and Pakistan and where people of different religions attack and kill one another.

But here on the corner of Western and Devon Avenues, many of the approximately 200,000 Chicagoans of Indian and Pakistani descent live side by side. They make a living driving cabs, selling electronics and telling fortunes. They drink Taj Mahal beer, read The Urdu Times and eat halal goat, chicken and fish.

Instead of squaring off against each other over the decades-old British division of their native lands, most residents of this blue-collar area on the city’s North Side share the unifying power of adversity: nearly everyone is suffering from the slumping economy.

[Click to continue reading Street Corners – Shedding Old Rivalries and Pulling Together – NYTimes.com]

Next time you are in town, let me take you there…