Maybe you've heard of it?
Kiva.org is a social change non-profit that empowers individuals with internet access and a PayPal account with the capacity to micro-finance directly to borrowers in the developing world through no-interest loans.
It's the same basic principles of micro-finance that won Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
After easily raising over $450 online for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital through the elementary school where I have been a teacher's aid through AmeriCorps NCCC, I was on a high. Not long after, I spoke with my sister's boyfriend (who also happens to be an Adam) and he reminded me about a site that we had talked about before, but that I had since forgotten - Kiva.org.
He told me he had provided part of 12 different loans to people in developing nations, most in need of supplies for their small business. Adam now only has 2 outstanding loans, currently being paid back as scheduled (monthly); his other 10 have been paid back in full (Kiva has a 99.9% repayment rate apparently) over the designated term (could be 3, 6 months, a year, etc.).
So I easily signed up as a lender at the end of March and quickly began 3 no-interest $25 loans to individuals in Peru and Paraguay in need of funds to buy supplies for their grocery store or retail business. Kiva background checks all their borrowers and appears to take the necessary precautions so that most lenders would probably feel comfortable participating (at least I was). And the process was easy; PayPal handles all the transactions at no cost to Kiva.
My shortest loan will be fully repayed in 3 months, so I'll revise this entry if there are any issues, but I did just recently receive a journal update from a borrower who had received her loan and is very grateful.
Like myself, you may not be a huge fan of many of the principles of our current socio-economic system, but as an advocate for the ability of every person to affect positive change within his or her means, and within the means of this current economic system called capitalism, I think Kiva.org is a great way for everyday people to affect the sort of sustainable and grassroots change that we often talk about.
Have a look for yourself.
He told me he had provided part of 12 different loans to people in developing nations, most in need of supplies for their small business. Adam now only has 2 outstanding loans, currently being paid back as scheduled (monthly); his other 10 have been paid back in full (Kiva has a 99.9% repayment rate apparently) over the designated term (could be 3, 6 months, a year, etc.).
So I easily signed up as a lender at the end of March and quickly began 3 no-interest $25 loans to individuals in Peru and Paraguay in need of funds to buy supplies for their grocery store or retail business. Kiva background checks all their borrowers and appears to take the necessary precautions so that most lenders would probably feel comfortable participating (at least I was). And the process was easy; PayPal handles all the transactions at no cost to Kiva.
My shortest loan will be fully repayed in 3 months, so I'll revise this entry if there are any issues, but I did just recently receive a journal update from a borrower who had received her loan and is very grateful.
Like myself, you may not be a huge fan of many of the principles of our current socio-economic system, but as an advocate for the ability of every person to affect positive change within his or her means, and within the means of this current economic system called capitalism, I think Kiva.org is a great way for everyday people to affect the sort of sustainable and grassroots change that we often talk about.
Have a look for yourself.
RSS Feed
