Have you heard about microfinancing? It's something that you and I can do to help fight poverty.In a nutshell, you loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By sponsoring their business, you are helping the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence.
Kiva (www.kiva.org/) is one such non-profit public benefit corporation that connects you with and loan money directly to the beneficiary without having to go through a bureaucratic and costly layer of aid groups in between. Kiva’s website provides information about entrepreneurs in poor countries – their photos, loan proposals and credit history – and allows people to make direct loans to them. When your loan is repaid, you can choose to withdraw your funds or re-loan to a new business.
It’s such a fantastic idea. You can loan as little as $25 at a time. Can you imagine if we forgo one meal in a fancy restaurant, we can literally change a person’s life forever. Through the website, you can track the progress of the businesses you have sponsored. After reading stories of how much the lives of families in Ghana or in Afghanistan have improved, I am moved to become a microfinancier too.
