"J" is a smart man. He is also a very poor man in a developing African country, with a family to feed, an inadequate housing situation and not a lot of opportunities. However, with just a few dollars "J" could set up a small shop that would bring in enough money to support himself and his family, with enough left over to begin saving for a better home. The only problem is, a few dollars might as well be a million to "J" given the state of the local economy. That's where you come in. Instead of denying and backing away from the title "rich Westerner," why not embrace it and use it to do some good? Even if you don't feel rich in comparison to the Jones', when compared to the "J's" of the world you're Croesus in a spiffy suit. And it really doesn't take that much to do a world of good. How much? How about $25.00? That's the minimum contribution to Kiva, a new peer-to-peer microloan project that enables those of us who have been fortunate enough to be born into a relatively wealthy, first-world situation to help those whose fortune didn't pan out so well. The concept is simple: First, you sign up for and "purchase" a piece of a loan via Pay Pal a credit card. Kiva then combines that purchase with money from others to make short-term loans to needy African entrepreneurs. The beneficiary sets up shop (or whatever) and pays the loan back. After the entire loan is repaid, you get your money back (no interest is paid to donors, although interest may be charged to the beneficiary of the loan to help defray costs), at which time you can opt to take your money out, re-loan it, or donate it to Kiva to either cover administration costs or to be added into a growing permanent loan pool, whichever you choose. Of course, Kiva does due diligence research before adding prospective loan recipients to the pool and all of the money you put in goes toward the loan process - Kiva's low overhead is covered by interest charges (if any) on the loans, fundraising and donations. So far, Kiva's payback percentage has been 100%, although the microfinance industry average is 97% so there's always a chance, however small, that you won't get your money back. But the coolest part of the whole process is that you get ongoing monthly updates about the person or business your money is helping. You get to see the good you're doing. You can be a part of the conversation, as well, by posting a comment on the site's update center. Comments are reviewed by staff and passed onto the business, if appropriate. So what's stopping you? Go on now - it's only $25. What's that these days, for a rich Westerner? A haircut? Dinner out? A Dixie Cup of gas? Whatever it is, it isn't much. But for a poor but motivated African entrepreneur, it's the chance of a lifetime to make a lifetime's worth of change. |
