To quote Forrest: As you go about your shopping during this giving season, consider making a micro-loan through Kiva. You loan a minimum of $25 to the borrower of your choice, all small business owners in other parts of the world. Your loan is combined with other loans, up to the amount the borrower requested, and is then administered by a financial institution that keeps the interest earned. When the loan is paid back, which 98.96% of them are, you can either get your money back or re-lend. My loan is currently partially-repaid by a dairy farmer in Kyrgyzstan who needed money to buy a new cow. Before that, it helped to fund a seed purchase for a farmer in South America. I have chosen to lend to small agri-businesses, but the variety of businesses and needs is huge. I wish states like Mississippi would ban the extremely destructive practice of pay-day lending and work with financial institutions to put together a micro-lending system instead.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:34:38 +0000