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.
7 comments:
I looked into Kiva after your e-mail, Emmy and it does look like a great way to help, one person at a time! I'll follow your example by making some loans and spreading the word also!
Barbara
I loaned to Malika Nurahmadova in Tajikistan for her little shop! What a clever little mousey you are, EE.
Thanks for posting this, I didn't know about it, I think I'll loan to someone in Azerbaijan because my friend Rustin is in the peace corps over there, and aside from sending him the occasional care package, this is the only way I can think of to help his cause. You can read about his life over there here:http://rustinjohnson.com/.
I'll be sure to forward you post to all my bleeding-heart-liberal friends!
I loaned $200 to this guy I work with, Eric (I think he's from Sweden or Iceland) and he paid me back $130 but I got tired of waiting for the rest so I climbed in his bathroom window on Easter when he was at his moms and took his PS2. Am I wrong? I don't think so.
Uh...I apologize for my brother's behavior. That's what happens when I share your post with all my bleeding heart liberal friends (and brothers...)
thanks for spreading the word (except for you, Kicking - be a little more discerning about your associates next time, although i can see Farrago's side of the story...)
i checked back with kiva yesterday and all of the people i loan to have their loans totally financed. i think the response has been impressive since frontline aired. bleeding-heart liberals unite!
Hi Emily - an update here. Kiva was just on the ABC news this past week and they had a huge inflow of financing funds. That proves there are more than just a few bleeding heart liberals out there, and then, of course there is also farrago.............
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