When people donate money to some charitable organizations, they don’t always know what happens next. You give the money, someone spends the money, and who can really say what good is being done with the money? As donors, we often don’t ask, and instead just trust that the non-profit will do what it says it’s going to do.
Non-profits, too, can do more to let their donors know how their money is being spent, and the remarkable results they create through the kindness of relative strangers. Kiva, in particular, is very good at this. One of our Lending Team’s loans is to an entrepreneur in Mongolia, and we just received this note that tells about the fascinating bigger picture in which we play a part.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Kiva and its entrepreneurs at XacBank, a field partner in Mongolia. Just recently, XacBank marked the two year anniversary of its partnership with Kiva. Over this time, you and other lenders have assisted over 2,950 entrepreneurs with $3,400,000 USD in loans.
As a Kiva Fellow, I’ve been working at XacBank over the past six months and want to share a few of their interesting programs – the creation of green loans, the spread of mobile banking, and the promotion of organic products.
Did you know that [the Mongolian city of] Ulaanbaatar is ranked the world’s 5th worst city for air pollution? (That’s what it looks like, right there.) The World Bank estimates that 60% of the air pollution comes from household heating systems and the fuel used to keep families warm in the winter. XacBank has partnered with Micro Energy Credits to develop green loans for items such as fuel efficient stoves, solar panels, warm housing covers, and energy efficient fuels.
Oyunchimeg, one of XacBank’s eco loan clients, began sewing sheets from her ger, a traditional Mongolian felt tent, in 2009. Running her small business from her home means that she must simultaneously keep a fire going in order to stay warm. At the beginning of winter, Oyunchimeg took a microloan from XacBank in order to buy more environmentally-friendly fuel in bulk. Oyunchimeg said that the new fuel helped her save money on fuel costs in the long run and also helped her run her business from home.
As well as in the environmental sector, XacBank has been innovative in the mobile banking area. XacBank created a mobile banking service named AMAR, which is available in some of the most remote areas of Mongolia. Clients no longer have to travel to one of XacBank’s physical branches; Clients can use a combination of cell phones and over 3,000 cash-handling agents, such as remote grocery stores and trusted individuals, to make a variety of transactions such as depositing, withdrawing, and transferring money.
Altantsetseg is both a Kiva entrepreneur and AMAR mobile banking user. She operates a small business selling meat in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Altantsetseg says that she’s a very busy woman running her small business, and normally doesn’t have too much time to go to the bank office. Since becoming a user of the AMAR mobile banking service, Altantsetseg says it has really saved her time and made her business more efficient. She can take payments and send payments to and from her partners through AMAR.
XacBank has partnered with many organizations such as the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce, large energy businesses and national media organizations to promote a project named Organic Mongolia. This project promotes organic goods grown and produced locally in Mongolia. It supports micro-businesses by providing low interest rate loans with no collateral requirements.
In addition to the loans, the project has many activities such as mass media advertising for the organic goods, training for entrepreneurs by professionals, certification of organic goods, and large scale trade fairs. So far, Organic Mongolia has assisted a wide variety of businesses like bee farms, greenhouses, soy bean production, and animal nutrition products.
Recently, all of the Organic Mongolia partners volunteered one day to assist a local greenhouse in bringing in their harvest. The XacBank team cleared the greenhouse of cucumber vines and roots, and then planted a batch of lettuce. While the team members worked in the greenhouse, the media sponsors produced a small segment to promote organic farming and organic businesses to the Mongolian public.
The staff at XacBank are committed to reducing poverty in Mongolia through innovative activities like the ones I’ve shared with you. Thank you again for your continued support of Kiva entrepreneurs, and, in turn, the Kiva field partners that disburse the loans in Mongolia.
–Amber Barger, KF14 Mongolia
To support entrepreneurs in Mongolia and other developing nations, please join the “A-Ha Yourself!” Lending Team at Kiva today, and even in a small way you can start making a world of difference.
