TASHKENT, Uzbekistan-On Aug. 22, Sevara Mukhamet-Alieva, director of World Council of Credit Unions' (WOCCU) development program in Uzbekistan, knew she'd spend her day answering e-mails, returning calls, visiting a member credit union and preparing for a board meeting of the Credit Union Association (CUA), a trade group developed to help manage and regulate the country's 55 credit unions. Mukhamet-Alieva did not know she would spend time dealing with an earthquake.
The quake, which registered 6.0 on a 12-point scale, struck Uzbekistan, a country just north of Afghanistan, at 1:26 p.m. while Mukhamet-Alieva was developing a business plan for a combined member database and payments clearance system. According to various news services, the quake tumbled bricks, cracked windows and created public confusion in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital of 2 million people. An emergency ministry spokesman reported no casualties, fires or significant damage.
Mukhamet-Alieva, 31, reported much of the same response. Holding her ground, she managed to finish her plan in preparation for the meeting. The planning-and the quake-came at the end of an already busy morning that included a meeting with representatives from the International Finance Corp. on proposed legislative oversight for the country's credit bureaus and agreement on future actions by WOCCU and CUA on behalf of Uzbekistan's 67,000 credit union members.
By all accounts, it was a typical start to a typical day for Mukhamet-Alieva, a graduate in banking from the Tashkent Financial Institute. The earthquake's inconvenience notwithstanding, the morning's worth of activities is something that appeals to the WOCCU project director.
"Since the beginning of my career working with credit unions, my motivation has been to help people organize financial cooperatives," Mukhamet-Alieva said. "I never planned nor expected to become a project director, but accepting this position allowed me to do what I liked most-work with credit union leadership to help the institution become bigger, stronger and safer."
Efforts on the part of Mukhamet-Alieva and others resulted in the formation in June 2005 of CUA, designed to "represent the interests of credit unions, provide service to members and contribute toward increased safety and soundness of the system," according to the association's mandate. A key component of CUA is its audit department, which acts as a private regulator of member credit unions. This helps support the association's role not only as a lobbying organization, but as a central liquidity source for Uzbek credit unions as well.
CUA staff share an office with WOCCU, whose Uzbekistan program was funded with a six-year grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Both offices are housed in a former private residence in downtown Tashkent, and it's from her desk there that Mukhamet-Alieva fields calls and e-mails from member institutions and plans for the growth and activities that have come to characterize the country's credit union movement.
While administrative issues, planning and quake recovery dominated Mukhamet-Alieva's morning, the afternoon of Aug. 22 was reserved for a visit to Osiyo Trust Credit Union in Tashkent. Once there, the WOCCU project director met with the chairmen of both the credit union and CUA for an hour to discuss technical issues affecting credit union operations and preparing for the CUA board meeting, which immediately followed.
During the four-hour board meeting, the board discussed the association's budget and standards for hiring a new executive director. The five-member board also examined a CUA audit report of Nurafshon Credit Union located in Ferghana Valley, 200 miles east of Tashkent, and reviewed WOCCU's continued support of the Uzbek credit union movement. After the meeting, there was a two-hour dinner with association board and staff, further lengthening an already full day.
Despite the grueling schedule, WOCCU's Uzbekistan project director finds a great deal of satisfaction in her work and would like to see the country's credit union movement continue to grow.
"When a credit union has reached a target or milestone we have planned together, they call me to share their accomplishments," Mukhamet-Alieva said. "One of my most satisfying experiences was helping a young credit union we had placed under conservatorship emerge after two years stronger than ever to serve its members.
"When I started working for WOCCU, no one in my family had heard about credit unions, and now everybody's a member and has good things to say," she added. "It's very satisfying to realize that, with WOCCU's help, I've been able to help organize and establish credit unions in Uzbekistan."
Normunds Mizis, the former project director for WOCCU Uzbekistan, remains involved in the country's credit union affairs and also serves as project director for WOCCU's program in Sri Lanka.(c) 2008 Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/
