After school let out last spring, five students and an alum traveled to western Kenya for four weeks to gather footage for several films on how microfinance is changing the lives of entrepreneurs in developing countries. Stephen Salisbury '09, Max Schoening '09, Justine McGowan '08, Tihtina Zenebe Gebre '09, Colin Chazen '09 and Ryan Heath '05 went to Africa in cooperation with Kiva, a microfinancing organization that allows individuals to lend small sums of money to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world through the company's Web site. The idea for the trip came from Brown's chapter of Students of the World, a national organization that sends teams of college students to developing countries to document progress.
The students are still in the process of editing their film footage, but they hope to ultimately produce two promotional films for Kiva documenting success stories of microfinance in Kenya, as well as another microfinance film that will present this story to the Brown community.
The students originally traveled to Africa simply to film for their documentary, but they ended up working for Kiva as well. McGowan, Schoening and Heath were located in rural Kenya, while Gebre, Chazen and Salisbury were located in Kisumu, the third-largest city in Kenya. In each group of three, two students worked as field journalists, traveling to interview entrepreneurs in Kenya who had received loans through Kiva. The third person documented stories of the interviewed entrepreneurs by maintaining online profiles of them. "It's a totally different experience to actually get on the ground. The people in the country were very interested in bettering their country ... (which) was really inspiring," said Heath, who served as a field journalist.
Since microfinance is still being introduced to Kenyans, changes in the country are not monumental just yet, Schoening said. Still, based on his observations, he said microfinance has been able to change the lives of the limited number of entrepreneurs who have received loans. For example, Schoening described a particularly memorable female entrepreneur whose husband, who had four other wives, had ceased to take care of her and her children. Through the loans, she started three businesses, which helped her begin to provide for her children. One business centered around selling produce, and another involved scrap metal.
"People feel isolated (without the loans), but once they start getting loans, they become uplifted," Schoening said.
Another memorable Kenyan was an entrepreneur whose brother had died. He took on the responsibility of providing for his brother's family, with about 20 dependents, Schoening said. But through microfinance, the entrepreneur started a general store in order to support his family and his brother's family.
The students estimate that they spent about $9,000 on the trip to Kenya, most of which was raised during the spring semester of last year. Departments at the University provided about half of the $9,000, and the other half was provided by private donors. "(Fundraising) was very difficult, but we ended up doing it. Brown ended up being really supportive," Salisbury said.
The students said the trip was entirely worth the difficulties posed by fundraising. "To be able to see everybody (on the trip) going through the lifestyle transition and the emotional toll ... reminded me that traveling in a group was really powerful," McGowan said.
In addition to compiling footage, the students took advantage of the experience in other ways as well. Schoening, for example, took photographs that are now featured on Kiva's Web site. Schoening also hopes to use his photographs in an independent study this semester, in which he will explore how Africa is portrayed by the Western traveler.
The Brown chapter of Students of the World is currently planning a third trip to Africa to film another documentary.
