West Timor is the country equivalent of Robert Downey Senior. The usual reaction is “West Timor? I didn’t know there was a West Timor. But I’ve heard of East Timor so I suppose it makes sense”.
And indeed it does make sense, especially if you live here. West Timor, formerly a Dutch colony until it was un-clogged in 1945, is on an island towards the eastern side of Indonesia (Timur conveniently means “east” in Indonesian) but, it should be stressed, not the most easterly island as that is Papua and or West Papua (to clarify please see www.google.com), and is attached to East Timor, who (in)famously fought for and gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. It forms part of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tengarra, the poorest of all thirty-three provinces in Indonesia. It is also home to TLM, one of the newest Kiva field partners.
Tanaoba Lais Manekat (“Serve With Love”), or TLM for short, is a Christian organisation founded by the protestant church in 1994. Around eleven thousand clients are recipients of the TLM loans (and love) within the province. Some of the fortunate ones will shortly be receiving some Kiva love too!
TLM are aiming to grow their operations and client base rapidly, and Kiva is a big part of these plans. They are currently in their pilot phase so if you manage to find one of their loans before it’s fully funded, count yourself lucky! TLM loans are so hot right now.
In return for your loans, TLM are showcasing a unique-to-Kiva cashless cow-fattening loan where the borrower receives a skinny cow and one year later shares the profits from the sale of the (hopefully) fatter cow. Your repayment is genuinely dependent on how much a cow eats. Will you find a cash cow? Or will you be left crying over spilt milk?
We need your help to get fat!
Below is a video introduction to TLM featuring a trip into the beautiful Timor countryside and some heroic tree climbing.
'Ways to support TLM:
Join the TLM lending team on Kiva
Follow TLM on Twitter! Kiva Coordinator Shanty, probably the only twitterer in West Timor, will be keeping TLMs twitter feed updated with all of their Kiva activities. Be the first to know when new TLM loans are posted!
Check out all TLM loans currently fundraising on Kiva here and make a loan!
Kiva Fellowships are unpaid voluntary positions and I totally forgot to do any fundraising for mine. If you would like to help me out in any way, you can donate to me here. I wish I’d thought of this earlier. Thank you. Kieran
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