Kiva For Greater Humanity

After hearing a recent radio program about the global non-profit organization, Kiva on NPR, I felt very compelled to look into the details of this agency. The older I’m becoming, the more I realize that I live in a country of plenty. So many people in the world, particularly in developing countries barely make it day by day. The first exposure I had to EXTREME poverty was traveling in Africa in 2007. As a good citizen, not only of this nation, but any good citizen who has resources to help others in need, should check this non-profit out.

The short of it is, that you along with other “donors” across the globe can pool fiscal resources and help a person in need or “entrepreneur” establish a business to help sustain themselves and their family, providing the basic necessities that we often take for granted. The pooled resources are collected and then are used as monetary collateral for local lending institutions to monitor and enforce the payback. You get monthly reports on your “entrepreneur” and their repayment history. Because donors are financing these micro-loans, the monitored lending authorities are supervised in other countries by this non-profit. With this partnership, the individual can be offered an extremely low interest loan, much less than if a bank was just giving them a loan with no collateral. The individual establishes a repayment history, and develops credit, all good tools for helping them to sustain themselves in the future.

You can pool as little as $25 with other donors to support someone. We’ve decided to join the tens of thousands of other donors across the world, doing what we can, and helping to make a difference one life and one small micro-loan at a time. You should check it out at kiva.org.