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thetatianaI just found this cool site:
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses
It lets you make small zero interest loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world to help them lift themselves out of poverty. The payback rate is over 96%. I think it's awesome! A fantastic idea. Paypal is donating their services for free. The Wall Street Journal and Frontline have been talking about it. It's really starting to take off. I am lending to two businesses so far, one in Ecuador and one in Mexico. I plan to do one a paycheck from now on, and when they pay it back, I can reinvest in other small businesses. I got my sister a Kiva gift certificate for Christmas. Maybe she'll catch the bug and start investing regularly too.
So far I'm very attracted to the people in Africa and in Central and South America, because your money goes so far, there. Loans of a few hundred dollars can turn lives around. My strategy is to invest small amounts in each business I select, to spread it out as much as possible. Other lenders pick up the slack, and together we fund the whole loan amount someone needs. The Micro-finance organizations at the far end also help with training people how to do their accounting and run their businesses, as well as providing micro-insurance and other services. I think it's such a great idea, because a dozen or two dozen of these loans in an area can have a beneficial effect on the local economy, and help everyone there to do better, even those who have not taken out a loan for themselves, or otherwise used the services of the micro-finance institutions.
Here are the two I've started with. The first one is Olivia from Guayaquil, Ecuador (a place I adored when I visited there).
The second one is Angelica from Mexico.
Both of them run small general stores, and I wish them great success with their businesses!
I would love to see my church do something like this, as well. We are very well positioned to be good at this, since we already have members and missionaries all over the world, and maintain strong ties to each local community. All we need is the web design aspect to make it go. It's very similar to the Perpetual Education Fund, which the church already has, that gives educational loans to young men and women in the developing world, so that they may go to school and increase their future income many-fold. I would love to see the Relief Society (Mormon women's organization) pick this project up and run with it.
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses
It lets you make small zero interest loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world to help them lift themselves out of poverty. The payback rate is over 96%. I think it's awesome! A fantastic idea. Paypal is donating their services for free. The Wall Street Journal and Frontline have been talking about it. It's really starting to take off. I am lending to two businesses so far, one in Ecuador and one in Mexico. I plan to do one a paycheck from now on, and when they pay it back, I can reinvest in other small businesses. I got my sister a Kiva gift certificate for Christmas. Maybe she'll catch the bug and start investing regularly too.
So far I'm very attracted to the people in Africa and in Central and South America, because your money goes so far, there. Loans of a few hundred dollars can turn lives around. My strategy is to invest small amounts in each business I select, to spread it out as much as possible. Other lenders pick up the slack, and together we fund the whole loan amount someone needs. The Micro-finance organizations at the far end also help with training people how to do their accounting and run their businesses, as well as providing micro-insurance and other services. I think it's such a great idea, because a dozen or two dozen of these loans in an area can have a beneficial effect on the local economy, and help everyone there to do better, even those who have not taken out a loan for themselves, or otherwise used the services of the micro-finance institutions.
Here are the two I've started with. The first one is Olivia from Guayaquil, Ecuador (a place I adored when I visited there).
The second one is Angelica from Mexico.
Both of them run small general stores, and I wish them great success with their businesses!
I would love to see my church do something like this, as well. We are very well positioned to be good at this, since we already have members and missionaries all over the world, and maintain strong ties to each local community. All we need is the web design aspect to make it go. It's very similar to the Perpetual Education Fund, which the church already has, that gives educational loans to young men and women in the developing world, so that they may go to school and increase their future income many-fold. I would love to see the Relief Society (Mormon women's organization) pick this project up and run with it.
