It’s the middle of the month, so the repayments are once again rolling back into Kiva accounts throughout the world, waiting to be gathered up and loaned out to the next person.
What we love more than anything else about Kiva is we can reuse the same money over and over again. This is so far from throwing money at an organisation and hoping some of it gets to the people you want to help it isn’t funny. You choose the person you want your US$25 to help and then, because it’s a loan, over a period of months they pay it back allowing you to lend it out again.
Miss10 helped me choose who we’d help out today.
Here’s what Blanca’s application told us about her situation:
“Blanca is married, with 5 children who live with her. In order to handle the household expenses she works raising pigs, chickens, and cattle. She has been engaged in this activity since her youth, so she has a lot of experience in her business. She will invest the loan to buy cattle which will strengthen the business and with more livestock to offer her buyers she will have higher profits, which she will use to pay her monthly loan payments. Her greatest aspiration is to offer her children many educational opportunities towards their success as well as better nutrition, health and clothing.”
There were a couple of things about this application which tickled Miss10’s fancy, like Blanco’s desire to send her kids to school, and we talked about how lucky we are in this country to be able to go to school and get an education. But Miss10 also connected with
“She’s got a family just like ours,” said Miss10. I assumed she meant there were five kids living at home, but no. “Mum says you’re raising pigs too.”
What I love especially about this way of helping people is my dollar goes a long way. I help someone and they pay back my money, then I lend that same money to the next person. For a small amount of money up front I can go on helping people for years. As I see it I’m recycling my charity dollars 🙂 We can even withdraw the repaid dollars if we want.
But you don’t even have to use your own money to try the Kiva concept for yourself! Click on THIS LINK to go to the Kiva site and you can have a try of the whole process and choose a person to help in some far flung part of the world and someone else will put up the US$25 for you (they get the money back when it’s repaid, of course).
We love the Kiva concept. We love our kids are learning about the world and how lucky their privileged place is within it. We love they show empathy for the people they’re helping. We love we can do it all for as little as US$25.
Check it out – it’s great! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks again to everyone who has joined the battle against poverty. It feels good, doesn’t it 🙂
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”Raising a family on little more than laughs.”