Kiva - Loans that change lives

By Adam Valvasori - Ghana Bakery Investor

Have you ever invested in a taxi in Tajikistan, a beauty salon in Nigeria, a grocery store in Vietnam?

These are just some of the amazing business ventures being supported by local micro-finance institutions around the world and the www.kiva.org website. All it needs is you.

Brian Cullis-Overton (Vegetable Store Investor - Tanzania) from The Body Shop Geelong and I would like to share the joy of Kiva with you.

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

Choose an Entrepreneur, Lend,
Get Repaid

It's so easy. Here's how it works. The below diagram shows briefly how money gets from you to a developing-world entrepreneur, and back.


1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide.

2) Kiva's microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur's chances of success.

3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them.

4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.



I just invested 50 bucks in a bakery in Ghana. The lady in the photo wearing the blue dress is Araba Amoaniwaa's daughter, who is helping the business. Araba wants to use the loan to buy flour, margarine, sugar, and firewood to expand her operation. In the time it has taken to write this blog post, Araba's loan request of $525 went from 85% funded to 100% funded! It's amazing how quick and easy it is for us affluent web users to park some money in a business that will help alleviate poverty!

You can check out my Kiva profile here.

If you can spare the money just do it. You get the money back and it makes such a great difference for people trying to fight their own way out of the poverty trap.

www.kiva.org

~ Adam