Photos from the Field in Bogor, Indonesia

This past week, I had the good fortune to meet with BAIK - a microfinance institution located in Bogor, Indonesia that is looking to partner with Kiva (Bogor is located about an hour South of Jakarta by train). BAIK is part of PERAMU, an umbrella organization that founded a microfinance institution (BAIK), a cooperative & rural bank all in the same region of Bogor to better serve the needs of the working poor in the region.

BAIK utilizes the Grameen model of microfinance in that it organizes poor women into borrowing groups & disburses loans through these groups. BAIK has a very strong pro-poor focus as they charge ZERO interest on all first loans to their borrowers. In addition, BAIK follows the Islamic banking rules of Shariya as they lend in a region heavily populated by Muslims.

Anyways, here are some photos their staff took while I was visiting & thought I would share it with everyone:

1. Here's a photo of 20 borrowers who work in the Tamaransi district - all of them are shoemakers who make about 20,000 Rupiah (~$2.25USD) in profit for every 20 shoes they sell. The field officer is collecting the weekly repayments for this group - no loans were disbursed in observance of the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan.



2. At the Tamaransi Field Office of BAIK.



3. Me with the loan officers of BAIK's Tamaransi Field Office. Some of the loan officers used to be borrowers of BAIK & now are loan officers who help other women receive loans from BAIK!



4. Observed while traveling to the Tamaransi Field Office - obviously the definition of "worker safety" is a bit different than ours!



Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific Region