A Brush for Dusty Shoes: A Day in the Life of a FINCA Loan Officer

As we all know, FINCA differs immensely from a commercial bank. A bank would look at FINCA’s borrowers and immediately focus on the risky nature of lending to clients without collateral. FINCA, on the other hand, focuses on the entrepreneurial potential of prospective borrowers, giving them the chance to build assets, savings, a credit rating and much more. But this is not the only thing that sets FINCA apart from other financial institutions.

Working with Interpreters

First Days in Zambia

The Fire in Your Belly

In a DC hotel’s conference room, two days before leaving for Latin America to begin a summer long fellowship with FINCA International, John Hatch stood at the front of the room and explained to 45 summer research fellows how he began village banking and, more importantly, why. 

Preparing to Leave for Tanzania

Unlike my other three teammates on Team Tanzania, Donna, Cheng and Matu, I have never been to East Africa. Prior to graduate school I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin (West Africa) where I worked with entrepreneurs to improve their businesses.

Lucky Fellow

After a long week of learning about data analysis, technology troubleshooting, and interview practice, hearing the inspirational story of FINCA’s founder was just incredible. He told us heartbreaking stories of extreme poverty in Latin America ... 

In With the Old, In With the New

The FINCA Fellowship offers much that is familiar and yet promises much that is unfamiliar. I’ll take the old with the new and try to make something that would make FINCA’s donors proud. I just hope it stops raining before I am finished.

Preparing for Nicaragua

Training is almost over, my bags are packed, and I am counting down the minutes until I leave for Nicaragua. After a challenging first year of graduate studies at American University, I am ready to apply what I have learned and get out in the field and see microfinance in action. 

Through the FINCA Fellowship, I am returning to Azerbaijan to conduct interviews with microfinance clients to create a profile of client’s social performance based on expenditures.