Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Kiva

My super cool brother and sister-in-law gave us a gift certificate to Kiva.org for Christmas. While I was going through my Inbox today, I realized we hadn't redeemed it yet. I logged on and found this lady:
Alexis owns a butcher shop in the Dominican Republic. She supports four kids with her shop and she is using this loan to grow her business.  She's using it to buy chickens to sell in her shop.  This is her second loan - the first was used to start the business.  She's turning a profit, but has so many customers now, she needs more chickens.  Way to go, Alexis!  I was pretty excited to find her and we used our gift certificate toward part of her loan. We're lucky to have the chance to help her.  I reloaded the page after loaning her our money and the entire loan was fulfilled.  So many great people out there helping others.  I love it.  

What is Kiva, you ask?  It's a microfinance website where people all over the world can connect with and loan money to small business owners in developing countries.  You get to see pictures and a short profile of the person you are loaning the money to and you can track the loan as it is being repaid.  Coolest feature?  It's a loan.  If you want, once the loan has been repaid, you can withdraw your money.  Even better?  Instead of withdrawing the money you can loan it to someone else.  You can just keep loaning and loaning the same money.  And if you want, you can give more money.   If you really get crazy about Kiva you can give people gift certificates like my brother and sister-in-law gave to us (it was a fantastic gift, and clutter-free, I might add!).  It's a great thing.  Head over there and help someone in Cambodia (or the developing country of your choice) start their own business!

2 comments:

Yvonne said...

This is such a great thing. I went onto the website and will have to take more time to check into it I appreciate so much your doing this post and calling it to everyone's attention.

Michal said...

what a great idea! thanks for the post.

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