November 2015: Presentations, Loans, New Ideas, Next Meeting

On Sunday, November 1, 2015, Wes Smits made a presentation about KIVA to approximately ten individuals during the adult study hour. For most in attendance, it was their first time hearing about the origins of microfinance, and then Wellshire's initial steps with KIVA.

As a demonstration about how easy it is to get involved, the group funded $25 to JUAN RAMIRO from Bolivia (a cobbler). He is buying cattle and a sewing machine. Repayments begin January 2016 thru March 2017. Katy has put information about this loan aside so that we may update the congregation on its progress.

An idea came up in the discussion: to fund an account (suggested $100) for each high school graduate through the Wellshire MicroFinance team. This would symbolize the graduate going out into the world, but still with connections to Wellshire, to do good things for others. An alternative would be to do this for the confirmation class.

Since August 26, 2015, the Wellshire Kiva team has funded 83 loans. Our recipients are 58% female and 42% male. The four countries that have received the most loans from the entire group are Kenya, Uganda, Philippines, and El Salvador. The team has made loans to 65 of 83 countries. The microfinance committee continues to avoid making loans to India but does not discourage individual members from doing so on their own.

The next meeting is Thursday, November 19, 2015, at noon. The Alternative Christmas Market is Sunday, November 22 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm.

September 2015 recap

The faithful members of the Wellshire Microfinance Committee gathered on Thursday, September 17. We had a very productive session, using our loan payback money to make seven $50 loans. We lent money to people in El Salvador, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Haiti, Philippines, Colombia, and Myanmar. We then used $500 of the restricted funds to fund seven more loans to people in Vietnam, Haiti, Albania, Uganda, Cambodia, and El Salvador.

A motion was made to use the remaining money in the restricted account to purchase the gift cards to sell at the Alternative Christmas Market. Last year, a member of the committee purchased $250 worth of gift cards, some of which we sold, others we used to make loans at our meetings. People think this is an OK idea but only want to buy 5 instead of 10.

The Microfinance Committee has been asked to make a presentation during the Christian Education Hour at 9:55 am about what we do and where we spend our money. That presentation will be on Sunday, November 1.

Our next scheduled meeting is Thursday, November 19 at 12:00 pm at Wellshire.

August 2015 Recap

Since June 16, 2015, the members of the Wellshire Microfinance team have made 124 loans. In June, we had made 1,492 loans with a total amount lent of $38,925. Today we sit at 1,616 loans and $42,450 lent. Wow! That's a lot of dollars going out and coming back in. Our percentages are pretty consistent: 57% women, 43% men. We have lent to 65 of 83 countries, with the highest percentage going to Kenya, Uganda, Philippines, El Salvador, and Peru.

Katy has taken over the management of the Club 45 account.

At our last meeting, we took note of the APR some of the field partners are charging the borrowers. We will continue to discuss if we want to lend through these field partners. They lend to some of the most vulnerable people on the planet and so their expenses are high. It's hard to ignore the need of the borrowers even though it pains us to see them paying such high interest rates.

Our next meeting will be noon on September 17 at Wellshire. Hope to see you there. As always, feel free to e-mail in your loan suggestions. Maybe we could try and find a loan or two to countries we haven't lent to before. I know it's hard, there often aren't any.

July 2015 Recap

We had a very productive meeting on July 23. We had $372 to reinvest, and after learning we had $1,225 in the restricted fund, we decided it was time to add some new money to our loans. We dipped into the restricted fund for an additional $400 and used the remaining two $25 gift cards, funding 17 loans in 12 different countries. We discussed making our standard loan amount $50 since we are adding more money to the pool. Some loans which are less secure in their payback will still be for $25.

The group learned that some of the field partners seem to charge an exorbitant fee to the borrowers which we had not noticed before. Katy will be sending an e-mail to Kiva to find out more about this.

Our next scheduled meeting is Thursday, Sept 17 at noon at Wellshire.

May 2015 Update

On May 21, we did a virtual meeting and funded 12 loans. One was immediately refunded because the loan window ran out, and one is in danger of expiring tomorrow. We are a little off the pace of last year's lending. In all of 2014 we loaned $13,725. As of right now, we have loaned $5,225.  In the month of May, we made a total of 25 loans; for the month of June, we have made one.

A meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, July 23 -- save the date.

January Wellshire Microfinance Recap

The Wellshire Microfinance Committee met on January 15 and invested in 16 new loans. We made 12 loans out of loan paybacks and used four gift cards to add new funds to our account. In total, the Wellshire Kiva group made 56 loans in January (as of January 28). We welcomed a visitor, Joan Wells, to our meeting and we hope she'll return for future meetings.

Happy New Year!

The Christmas season is over, and a new year of opportunity is here. The microfinance committee did not meet in December, but our members made 31 loans for $790 on their own. The Wellshire lending team now stands at 1296 loans totaling $33,750.

We still have $25 gift cards if anyone would like to purchase one to give as a gift. Katy Fink-Johnson gave some out at Christmas and the response has been terrific.

Our next committee meeting will be Thursday, January 15 at noon. We will have approximately $400 in loan paybacks to reinvest, and we'll look at adding some more from the restricted fund.