In
this blog, our Microfinance Programme Manager talks about his daily work, the
people he works with and the skills he transfers to make it successful.
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My name is Sovann Thet. I am not original from Siem
Reap. I am from Banteay Meanchey, in the west of Cambodia next to Khmer-Thai
border. I have worked in the Microfinance sector since 2007 with Seilanithih
Micro Finance Institution and I have been Microfinance Programme Manager at
JWOC for one year.
I am very happy to work for JWOC, especially for the
Microfinance Programme and with the Microfinance team. There are 21 JWOC
Scholarship students in the team, and most of them are women. It is good for
the programme because most of JWOC’s borrowers are women. Our students volunteer
as Loan Officers and build good relationship with the borrowers. Some of them
are studying in second year, some are in third year and some of them are in
final year. Most of them study in the field of finance and banking, and some
are in the field of management. They are very helpful. I train them on how to
work in the microloan sector before they start working with me.
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| Two Borrowers who both have vegetable stalls at the local market |
There are 14 Volunteer Loan Officers working every
Sunday to help with the weekly collection from our borrowers. Before starting
to do the collection, I always have a short meeting with them. The meeting is about
who will go to collect from which village and assign some additional task for
them to do. They don’t only collect money from borrowers, but they also have to
advertise new loans, help with organizing and processing loans, do business visits with borrowers, do baseline surveys at
the beginning of the loan cycle, and impact surveys at the end of the cycle.
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| Sovann and the team register new Borrowers |
One of our Volunteer Loan Officers, Mengty, said, “I am
very happy to work as volunteer at JWOC. I learn a lot of experiences from
working in this position, money checking, communicating with local authority
and borrowers. I can apply my skills and knowledge which I learn from teachers
at university.”
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| Mengty, shown here processing loan applications |
Now the Microfinance Programme has 67 active borrowers.
There are 21 borrowers in the November 2012 Cycle and 46 in the January 2013
Cycle. First time borrowers who get a loan from JWOC are very happy because
they also get basic hygiene training from our Clean Water Team and get hygiene
packs. They are also provided the training of how to start business with a
presentation by me.
Second time borrowers will get filter training from the
Clean Water Team, and can buy filters at a subsidized price. They also get the
training on how to use their second loan successfully from the JWOC Office
Manager.
Recently, we have a new Project Assistant, Tola, who helps
with the programme. I trained him on how to enter data into the Microfinance
system, and baseline and impact surveys database. I trained him on how the
Microfinance Programme is run. He is also in charge of checking and counting
money from Volunteer Loan Officers, when they return from the field - sometimes he helps them with collections. So last week, I assigned him to do advertising
for a new loan cycle in our target area.
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| Tola helps with loan collections in the field |
In conclusion, I am really happy that I have a chance to
work for JWOC, especially for the Microfinance Programme because it fits to my
major at University and my previous experience.
