Yes, it's a little break from my usual sarcasm and navel-gazing to look at the "bigger picture....
Maybe you've heard about microlending or microfinance, maybe not. Basically, it's exactly what you would expect: small scale business loans (under $100). However, Kiva takes it one step further, allowing people like you and me to fund small businesses in developing countries through local financing organizations. It really does look easy: register, browse borrowers, pick one (or more), and lend as little as $25 using your credit card or PayPal balance.
This is way more useful to the world than so many other things I regularly throw $25 at... in fact I think this is a great family activity, and we may actually decide where to invest as a group.
02 November 2007
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3 comments:
Oh! I've not seen this before. Not a scheme?
Kiva itself is not a scheme. I cannot vouch for each of the partner institutions who are basically local "middlemen" ... but I would suspect any really dicey partners will fall out the bottom of the system.
This, or something like it was mentioned on Oprah. Definately something to think about.
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