i saw a piece on Frontline/World last night about Kiva, a person-to-person mircoloan non profit. you can loan a small business owner as little as $25 toward their total loan (usually about $200-1200) and help them provide for their families by improving their business. i first heard about microloans when Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, and it seems like such a brilliant idea. so i joined up right away.
i loaned to Elizabeth in Ghana for her shop.
i loaned to Sakina in Afganistan (her son is pictured here because it is culturally unacceptable for her to be pictured on the internet). She manages her son's store (selling fuel), and provides for her family that way. i found her by searching for women in the middle east - she was the only woman applying for a loan. i'm excited to be helping someone with such a different life experience from mine.i also loaned to Rasim in Azerbaijan for his welding company and Alougba in Togo for her firewood business. so far, Kiva has a 100% repayment rate; most of the loans will be repayed in 8-18months, at which point, i can loan the money again.
