FEBRUARY 2008

 

Attention US grads:

MEDA US internships available!
MEDA has the opportunity of a lifetime for young US residents. For 2008-2009, MEDA has again committed funding for two internships for recent graduates from the US.

MEDA is now accepting applications for:

A micro-business development associate, who will work with the Gulf Coast Community Service Center in Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi. MEDA is helping to develop a micro-business development program using the ASSETS+ model, which provides training and technical assistance to entrepreneurs.

A human resource administrator, who will work with the human resource department of a Haitian credit union, Fonkoze Financial Services, in their head office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where MEDA is assisting in the design, implementation and training of a revised job evaluation system and performance management system.

Additional information about these internships is posted at www.meda.org. Send your resumes to jobs@meda.org

Do you know someone ...
... who has a strong interest in community-based economic development, is flexible and able to adapt to different environments and cultures? Please pass this information along!

"A MEDA internship is a great opportunity. I’ve acquired practical professional experience while making a positive impact on people’s lives."

—Scott Bennett, MEDA 2007-08 Internship: Microbusiness Development Associate, West Virginia

Scott Bennett

Psst! Pass it on …

Please feel free to send MEDAzine on to friends, family and others who may be interested in how MEDA is helping the poor around the world.

Click here to share MEDAzine

 

 

Members keep MEDA on the cutting edge, says Pries

MiCrédito staff, board of directors have good reason to celebrate

Generally speaking, January isn’t a particularly fun month: Christmas is over, Canada Post has delivered the season’s bills, Christmas is over, the weather is drab, work projects are looming, and sigh, did I mention that Christmas is over?

For some, a visit from the commanders in chief wouldn’t be much of a cheering prospect, but that’s not how they like to see things in Nicaragua. Just because Christmas is over doesn’t mean the fiestas have to stop.

Certainly for MiCrédito, it would appear that the Christmas season was just a warm-up. The arrival of MiCrédito board of directors members Julie Redfern, Gerhard Pries, Ron Haarer and chairman Fred Wall was reason enough to pull out all the stops.

MiCrédito and its board had good reason to celebrate in January: The Ciudad Jardin branch recently opened in the heart of Managua. The branch is just a stone’s throw from Central America’s biggest street market, el Mercado Oriental, and a wealth of clients and opportunities.

Moreover, the Rubenia branch has recently completed renovations and is now thriving, with more than twice the space. Staff and clients were on hand at the branches for two separate inauguration receptions, which included live music, refreshments and some celebratory remarks from both clients and staff leadership.

MiCrédito is still only a few years old, but it is certainly in a growth spurt. Led by Octavio Cortes, Veronica Herrera and Arnoldo Junior Bolaños, MiCrédito grew out of a former MEDA-owned microfinance institution named Chispa.

“I can understand why Octavio, Junior and Veronica wanted to come back to MEDA to work together," said Haarer, commenting on the strength of the newly-reformed team. They like that relationship, and you can see it in the way they work together.” Staff members show a passion to work for and with the local micro-business clients. Pries said, “The trip was fun, especially because of the great enthusiasm of everyone connected to MEDA.”

MiCrédito's team relationship is working well. Some big changes have taken place in a short time, and MiCrédito’s leadership doesn’t show any signs of wanting to slow down. “MiCrédito is a great example of MEDA’s business development model,” continued Pries.

“We started with some good research and market testing, made possible by the generous donations to MEDA. When that appeared to be successful, and we’d developed a business plan, we invested venture capital, drawn from the Sarona Risk Capital Fund, to launch MiCrédito. Then we offered MEDA members an opportunity to lend their own money, secured only by MEDA’s subordinated loan of $500,000, to this relatively high-risk venture.

"Now that MiCrédito has grown and passed the break-even point, local and international financial institutions are interested in both debt and equity … from concept, to R&D, to venture capital where others fear to go, to fully-commercial capital.”

MiCrédito stands out not just because of its bottom line, but also because at the heart of the organization is the desire to stand and work with the people of Nicaragua. Various members of the board took time during their trip to visit clients and look into potential sites for new branches.

“There are ways to give [the poor] opportunity and that’s really what we’re about,” Haarer remarked at one branch inauguration. Wall noted, “Overall, it is very exciting and rewarding to see all staff enthusiastically pulling together to grow MiCrédito to become a leader in the microfinance industry, and that’s largely what keeps me coming back!”

Interested in standing with the poor while making a useful investment? MiCrédito is one of the featured MEDA-owned microcredit organizations on the MEDA Trust website – www.medatrust.org. It takes only a few minutes to set up your own portfolio and be a part of the funding for this and other microfinance institutions in the MEDA family.