Have you heard about Kiva? This non-profit organization is one of my favorite ways to give.
Kiva’s mission is “to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”
Kiva lets you join in micro lending to some of the world’s poorest people. The minimum loan that you make is $25.00. Your loan gets combined with those of other folks and the combined amount is used to fund a micro loan for an individual or a group of individuals in numerous places around the world. It is a great setup, easy to do and the results have been phenomenal.
From the Kiva website, since Kiva was founded in 2005:
596,151 people have made loans through Kiva
$224 million in loans have been funded
98.79% repayment rate on these loans
As a former banker, I can say that the repayment rate is amazing!
May family has made 78 loans over the years. We chose to loan only to women. This is one of the ways we have chosen to flesh out our love for our neighbor.
Check it out here. This is my official invitation to you to join Kiva.
If you want to know more about micro lending and the work to alleviate poverty I would suggest the following books:
UnPoverty: Rich Lessons from the Working Poor
When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Yourself
Sounds like a great scheme Eric.
I'll investigate further.
Blessings
Dylan
Posted by: Dylan Morrison Author | Monday, July 04, 2011 at 09:06 AM