A Day of Discoveries

Man, today just keeps getting better and better! Following a link I saw to a LibriVox reader's blog, I came across Kiva.org

This website is amazing! You can go check it out to get more detailed info but basically they partner with microfinance institutions around the world to provide small loans to business operators in third world countries! This is not charity but an actual loan that is expected to be repaid. Only instead of coming from large financial institutions that will suck them dry, it comes from first world investors, such as ourselves. Now, the loan does go through a few middlemen, Kiva.org being the first and then whatever the local microfinance institution is -- and the local institution is allowed to charge interest, however Kiva has stated that they won't partner with anyone who charges ridiculous interest rates and that the main purpose of the whole site is to invest in the lives of people in developing countries, not to make money (in cases like these, the money made from interest rates tends to go towards administrative and upkeep costs anyhow).

I really can't expound on the brilliance of this project enough. If the Internet was ever to be used for the good of humanity, truly globalizing the planet, then surely this is the ultimate example of such a thing.

Perhaps controversially, I have chosen to make my first investment to a business in Afghanistan. My reason for this is due to Canada's current military presence there. Now, I'm not naive. I realize that although the Mercy Corps (the local lending organization) investigates each business thoroughly, money could still be funneled to terrorist groups. I also realize that even if it's not, my small donation is not going to do much to combat feuding warlords or power-hungry extremists. And yet still, the idealist inside of me SCREAMS that this is such a better way of supporting and empowering the people of Afghanistan than sending in a bunch of young men and women, armed to the teeth with guns and tanks. From a big picture perspective, if you want to talk about fostering terrorism, then surely sending in armed Western forces is doing a lot more to harvest such notions than my $50 loan could ever do.

Please, I implore you to go to Kiva.org and invest in a business. All you need is $25 US and a credit card -- the money goes through PayPal but you don't even need to sign up...you just punch in your credit card number and you can make an immediate & immense difference in someone's life. I know from my travels that what may seem like so little money to us really goes a long way in developing countries. So far, Kiva has a 100% loan repayment rate, so once your money comes back you could keep it or, of course, you are free to invest in someone else ;)

Here's a PBS documentary on how it works:

Watch the PBS documentary from FRONTLINE exploring the impact of microfinance in Uganda and how Kiva is helping.