Lima Reconnaissance Trip in May

In May 2007 I hitched a ride with Tom Sanderson, Director of Five Talents UK (FT UK), Craig Cole, Executive Director of Five Talents International (FTI), Helga Buck and Kelli Ross of FTI and David Fletcher, board member of FT UK, to Lima. For them it was an opportunity to visit the project they are funding in one of the southern poor districts of Lima called San Juan de Miraflores. For me it was an opportunity to meet the people I was, at that stage potentially, to work with come July. During the trip David filmed our encounters with clients as well as an interview with the Executive Director of ECLOF Peru, Carlos Venturo, one of the most upstanding citizens of the world you are liable to meet. This is the fruit of those labours.

An introduction to microfinance

Whilst Comunion Peru's excellent work to help earthquake victims continues, I unfortunately don't have any major successes to report. At last count we had opened eight communal kitchens in the areas around Chincha, Pisco and Ica. I'll be heading back down to Chincha this weekend with Movimiento de Vida Cristiana to pack boxes of food, clothes and so on and to distribute them. This organisation has also been doing sterling work, including organising a concert on Saturday by a major international classical pianist (who I'd never heard of; more a comment on my knowledge of classical music than his level of fame I suspect) all receipts from which will go to their earthquake fund.

I'd like to say thank you to those who have either donated money to Comunion Peru's efforts or are engaging in efforts to fundraise on our behalf. It is truly appreciated and I can assure you every penny goes to relieve suffering and help people who need it.

I'm posting a video produced by Five Talents and starring the UK Director Tom Sanderson (oddly flirting with a South African accent during the radio interview) and Charles Eve, a Five Talents Trustee and Co-head of EMEA Compliance at Goldman Sachs. It was the latter of these two gentlemen who started the ball rolling towards my eventual employment with Five Talents and secondment to ECLOF Peru.

This blog is supposed to be geared towards explaining the ins and outs of microfinance, but for good reason has been diverted to discussion of the earthquake. In anticipation of my first post on microfinance, provisionally entitled Microfinance 101, this video is a good introduction to the topic and although filmed in Uganda the realities, views and ideas observable and expressed therein give a good feel for the issues I will raise later.

Meeting good people

The organisation I'm working for here in Lima is called ECLOF (Ecumenical Church Loan Fund) Peru. I've been seconded to them by the organisation that hired me in London, Five Talents. ECLOF's set up here includes a central office, where I'll be spending most of my time and three regional offices, one in the northern suburb of Lima, one in the southern and one outside of Lima down near Lake Titicaca (the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, so they tell me). In each of the regional offices, between one and five credit analysts meet clients, provide business training and moral support and of course cash.

I've been spending this week in the two suburbs of Lima, following the credit analysts around as they visit clients. It's been a humbling experience to witness both the work the credit analysts perform day in, day out in uncomfortable conditions, as well as witnessing the habitats of our clients. These run the gamut from those who have the basic necessities of a decent amount of space, four walls with a solid roof, running water and waste disposal services to those who live in shacks to which a stiff wind would pose a problem, to which water has to be brought by tanker (not by the government but by enterprising private individuals) and whose toilets are communal outhouses.

At the end of each day this week, I've been able to come home to my brand new apartment in a quiet area of the swankiest part of town. Those clients are still in their little abodes in the hills around Lima probably somewhat cold as the evenings close in. And the credit analysts also live out in the burbs in (obviously) much better conditions than most of our clients, but probably still in areas that many of us would find difficult to cope with. I've met a few people over the years I've thought were doing virtuous work. These credit analysts rank with the best of them. A lesson in humility.