fellows

Each fellow has been working intently at his/her respective projects since our last update. Coming from many different backgrounds (collectively, we are studying accounting, entrepreneurship, international business, political science, economics, and international studies), we each have settled into specialized projects that will improve Lumana’s operations from many angles.

So far, Blake Strickland has been in charge of streamlining Mifos (a powerful tool that’s specifically designed for MFOs) so that the data we collect will be able to be put in a centralized database, which will allow for faster data input and quicker statistical calculations. In addition to Mifos, Blake has also been helping direct and oversee the business courses that Lumana offers to all incoming clients.

Mieka Briejer has been focusing mainly on creating updated versions of the class content and coordinating with Victor about covering all of the new content. The updated business classes span for two weeks instead of three. Not only does the new class schedule allow our clients to return to their business an entire week quicker, it also maintains all of the key concepts from the previous class schedule.

David Almeida has been working on a new business readiness survey. The new version of the survey is given to every new loan applicant. It allows us to learn about the well-being of our clients and to gauge their ability to utilize a loan. David has also been interviewing farmers in the Volta region. One thing that David mentioned is that although much of the soil here is relatively sandy, farmers are able to yield a very high number of tomatoes (along with other vegetables).

Xiaohan Zhang been devising an improved process of data collection to allow for better insight about the effects of Lumana’s loans on our clients. So far, he has been collecting PPI scores and detailed business information from current clients, new clients (those who are in the business training classes but have not received loans), and non-clients (those who have been approved, but not yet worked into our classes).

In addition to our individual projects, we have all been getting our hands dirty job shadowing several clients to gain an in depth view of how our clients run their businesses. Oh, and we were serious about the “getting our hands dirty” part…

While each of us has been working hard at our individual projects, we could not have done any of it without the help of our Ghanaian friends Victor and Kizito. They have been with us throughout the entire process by helping translate and providing insight about improvements to be made.

By Blake Strickland & Xiaohan Zhang

The fellows have arrived.

We've hit the ground running on various projects since safely arriving in Atorkor, Ghana, and Lumana has just selected its 5th class of borrowers in two years and we are in a crucial time of solidifying old practices and keeping up with a booming loan applicant list.

One of the most exciting projects that we're working on involves data collection on our new Google phones. Beyond simple mobile communication, these donated Google phones are allowing us to map villages through GPS tracking, survey clients, and calculate the poverty indices of the communities we are working with.

Duffy, our technology master, has been hard at work coding our Open Data Kit survey. The survey enables Lumana fellows to go out into the village with our talented translators Victor and Kzito to collect data on existing clients and hopefully potential clients from local villages as well.

An important portion of the surveys is Grameen’s poverty index or PPI survey. The Grameen Foundation has composed a formula based on questions like:

-Is your roof made of tin/metal or palm leaves?

-Do you own a radio, radio cassette, or 3-in-1 radio?

The answer to these questions equate to points that Open Data Kit calculates scores. Our data will allow us to analyze the well-being of people in Atorkor and (in the future) other villages quantitatively and more precisely. PPI scores range from 0-100, while each interval of five PPI points has a corresponding probability that measures a person’s chance of living in poverty.

These results will be useful for Lumana, because it allows us gain better insight into both potential and future clients. This information reveals how likely people in the markets where Lumana operates in are living in poverty. Several months from now, after conducting PPI surveys again, the information will also allow us to measure the impact of microfinance on the well-being of our clients. As for Lumana, being a sustainable company, the information will allow us to better allocate its financial resources by determining which clients are contributing their loans to assets which have the highest return (both socially and economically) on investment.