"If it's nice, I sell it!"

In my last post I shared a little bit about collecting client stories through field visits. Recently I featured one of these stories in a Mass Journal for Kiva. Kiva is an organization that connects individual lenders with microfinance institutions all over the world. HOPE Ukraine receives significant funding through lenders on Kiva. This Mass Journal was sent to any lender on the Kiva website who has ever donated to HOPE Ukraine and I was given a link so I could share with family and friends! The original journal can be found here.

"Thank you so much for the help you've provided to entrepreneurs in Ukraine through Kiva loans! We truly appreciate your support. The loans you helped fund were administered by our team here at HOPE Ukraine, a Kiva field partner.

HOPE Ukraine works on the ground to reach out to potential clients and make sure that the borrowers who receive loans funded by Kiva are supported and cared for. HOPE Ukraine has been a Kiva partner for over 6 years and was the first in this country.

Ukraine is rich in natural resources like manganese, coal, and graphite. The USSR industrialization of the country in the 1920s brought the construction of many new factories to tap into these resources. Some Ukrainian towns experienced huge population growth as a result, and even after the fall of the USSR, these cities remain important economic hubs. You can still see evidence of Ukraine’s Soviet past all over. Right down the road from one of HOPE Ukraine’s offices in Zaporozhye, there is a street named “40 Years of Soviet Ukraine Street," and statues of military leaders dot the cities.

Since the fall of the USSR in 1991, Ukrainian factories continue to produce substantial amounts of steel, metallurgical metals, and more. But earning a living from factory work has become increasingly difficult. Many factories have shut down, leaving thousands of Ukrainians without jobs. The factories that remain open offer wages well below what is needed to live, and while workers’ unions do exist, they are subject to corruption and do little to help alleviate the problem.

A lot of Ukrainians have flooded the job market looking for self-sufficiently -- people like Lidia (pictured), who was a baker in a factory until it shut down about 12 years ago. When HOPE Ukraine started in 1997, many of our clients used their loans to rent tables at the markets and to help cover the large overhead for purchasing goods in bulk. HOPE’s client database is full of exceptional stories of success and empowerment because of loans like these.

Now, 21 years after Ukraine reestablished itself as an independent nation, the sheer number of people flocking to the markets to find work has made it harder to make a living this way. In response, HOPE’s clients have shown tremendous creativity in adapting to this shift. Talking with HOPE’s clients in a market in a city called Nikopol, several women told me they have been focusing on a new strategy: product differentiation.

Lidia, who has been selling clothes in the markets for 10 years, says that there is a big difference between now and then. Today, with so many other clothing stores in the market (not to mention a rising number of malls), Lidia takes special care to make sure that her store carries something that you can’t get anywhere else: clothes for young people and even costumes.

“I try to buy things for teenagers and things for children from 10 to 15 years old because it’s very difficult to find good clothing for these ages,” Lidia says.

Because of loans from Kiva lenders like you, she is also able to set herself apart by offering higher-quality goods.

“Most of the people here sell things from China even though the quality is bad just because it is cheaper, so that’s why I try to sell Ukrainian clothes because the quality is good and design is nice,” Lidia explains. Getting straight to the point, she told me, “If it’s nice, I sell it.”

As she chatted with me about her different products, I asked whether she enjoyed working at the market. She laughed and said she likes to dress the children that come in. For her, the entrepreneurial growth of diversifying her products is coupled with a sincere joy in pleasing her customers.

There are more banks issuing loans in Ukraine than there used to be. As one of our loan officers, Dima, explains, you can get a loan in 10 minutes, but they have extraordinarily high interest rates and are ridden with hidden fees.

In this environment, HOPE Ukraine remains a trusted non-bank lender. Our clients continue to borrow from us because of our fair and consistent interest rates and personalized service.

Please join us in celebrating the entrepreneurial creativity of our determined clients! Loans from people like you are what makes these incredible stories of determination possible."

I think I can, I think I can...

When Alisa, who works in HR at HOPE, asked me where I would go if I got to pick from any of the 16 countries we work in, I said "Ukraine or Russia." When she asked me why, I told her that I like trains and I was pretty sure trains were a big thing over there. Now that's simplifying it a bit  lot, but it's true that one of my favorite places to be is on a train. I love standing on the platform waiting to board. I love struggling to stay upright while I stand by the door, waiting for my stop. There's just something distinctly peaceful about being on a long distance train, and it's always satisfied my independent streak to be able to hop a train and make my way home to Harrisburg without having to rely on someone with a car. I While I'm known for getting on trains in the wrong direction in Philly, I've miraculously avoided any such mishaps here in Ukraine (no doubt with some help from HOPE staff).

In these last three months, I've taken my love of trains to the next level. I've spent 4 nights in train compartments with strangers and in the coming week I'll spend the night on a train 4 more times. I've met some of the most interesting people on overnight trains. I met the wife of a car salesman on her way home to visit her parents in Zap (I've never seen anyone be so excited about the exotic land of Pennsylvania), an older lady who didn't have the kind of personal boundaries I've grown to appreciate, and a guy who taught himself English entirely from google translate. On the last train trip I took a woman shared her food with me (bread with a quarter inch of butter on it topped with sausage and a 'boiled egg' that was mostly raw in the middle). She was so excited to try out my marginal Russian skills that she went through every single one of my flashcards and constructed sentences using only the words I knew. It was a gesture I deeply appreciated.

            A long-distance train to Nova Kakhovka.          Okay, I don't love everything 
                                                                                              about Ukrainian trains...


Where have I been going on all of these trains, you ask? Field visits. One part of my internship here is collecting client stories and talking to HOPE staff about what's going on with the program so I can share what's happening in the field with donors (specifically Kiva lenders). I started out with visits to the local client office in Zap where I met with clients who were stopping by for monthly payments. Sitting behind the guest desk with my laptop out, I frantically typed up whatever I could catch of the client's stories through my translator, Katya. While it was awesome to hear from HOPE clients first-hand (well, second-hand if you count my translator) and all of clients who came in were kind and willing to chat, I can honestly say I didn't collect a single good story from those first visits.

Luckily, Max suggested it would be better for me to meet with clients at their businesses, on their own turf. So he set up a visit to Nikopol to meet with Dima, a loan officer, and follow him around for a day. In Nikopol I had an amazing translator, Serge. As it turns out, he used to work for HOPE  himself, so he had a lot of interesting insights to offer. Walking from stand to stand in the marketplace, I quickly doubled the number of clients I had met. It has been several years since Serge stopped working for HOPE, but almost all of the clients still recognized him. They smiled excitedly and wanted to catch up with him as much as they wanted to talk to me.

One woman I spoke with was already retired. She had a pension from the Ukrainian government and, though pensions for the elderly are comically low here, her situation didn't require her to work. She told me she keeps working just because she can--she doesn't want to be idle. That's already pretty unique in Ukrainian culture, but the most interesting thing about her I actually learned afterward from Serge. As we were walking away from her shop, he told me that her son has a high rank in the Ukrainian government and that it would be so easy for her to take advantage of his title to get what she wants, but instead she chooses to work her little shop, paying to rent the space and dealing with the oppressive barriers to entry like every other small business owner in Ukraine.

That is absolutely unheard of. 

The government is corrupt and it's obscenely hard to run a business the legal way. Most people will take shortcuts where they can (to put it lightly) and bribe whoever is in a position to offer them some help. It's easy to give up on doing things the right way in an economic situation that seems so hopeless. I was stunned  by this woman's choice.

So far I've visited Nikopol, Berdychev, and Nova Kakhovka on field visits and I hope to squeeze one more in before I come home. I love these visits and I hope that I am able to to use them to connect people in Ukraine with HOPE's donors back home. There is one significant challenge I've experienced during these visits, though: talking to people about their faith. Almost everyone here considers themselves Orthodox Christians. Max told me that when you ask a Ukrainian if they believe in God, they'll say 'of course! Who doesn't?' But very often this just means they go to the Orthodox service on Christmas and Easter. I know that some of our clients have been deeply transformed by their relationship with God and I would love to get a better picture of this. So please pray that I will know the right questions to ask and that people will be open to sharing their stories with me!

On a more touristy note, I also got to spend a weekend in Kiev on my way to Berdychev and Ira took it upon herself to give me an awesome guided tour of the city. Below are some pics from one of the most memorable parts of my time here.

                        Ira in front of St. Andrew's               Me beside my hero, The Little Prince

Ira and her roommate, Andre. Andre happens to be a journalist who studied politics in university. We had a great time visiting the political buildings of Kiev with him as a guide!

A typical Ukrainian car