Sometime towards the end of last year I am told I applied for a job via an internet mailing list I had subscribed to. I don’t remember doing it, but apparently I did, because now I have been offered and have accepted that job starting 18 August 2005. It’s a 5 month contract in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh was devastated in the December 2004 tsunami in Asia. I will be working for the Grameen Foundation USA with two local Indonesian NGO’s who are establishing microfinance initiatives. I will be responsible for implementing, documenting and providing training for the financial information system that the NGO’s will run.
Microfinance is a concept that has been touted as a powerful method of poverty alleviation. Broadly speaking it is finance for the poor: the provision of financial services to those living in poverty and excluded from the mainstream financial system. Microfinance clients will usually have small incomes and little or no assets, and hence no substantial financial guarantees. A key part of microfinance is providing microcredit, or very small loans, perhaps as little as US$40. Clients use these funds to start a new business or expand an existing one, such as buying a sewing machine, chicken, or cooking equipment, to start a sewing salon, egg selling business or restaurant. And that’s about all I know about microfinance at the moment.
Being the first time I have actually planned this far ahead, I am posting my schedule for the next 6 months, so you can pencil my whereabouts into your dairy and come and visit me, or more likely skip over the rest of this post:
2005:
18 Aug: Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
19 Aug: Jakarta, Indonesia
21 Aug: Banda Aceh, Indonesia
2006:
These 2006 dates are just a rough guide and will probably change.
01 Jan: Jakarta, Indonesia
09 Jan: Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
10 Jan: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
16 Jan: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
18 Jan: Ban Lung, Ratanakiri, Cambodia
21 Jan: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
22 Jan: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
23 Feb: Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
24 Feb: Auckland, New Zealand
