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Kiva: Microloans Made Easy

I think I've been living in the Seattle area long enough now that the general liberal vibe is starting to rub off on me. Not only that, it's rubbing off in a high-tech sort of way. I just made an online microloan of $25 to a man in Ecuador named Kléber Villafuerte through a site call kiva.org.

Mr. Villafuerte runs a small business selling fabric and making clothes and is looking for a $700 loan to buy fabric, thread, scissors, a mannequin, and similar supplies. Kiva lets you lend small amounts like $25 to entrepreneurs like these via a local microfinance organization--Mifex in Mr. Villafuerte's case. As a lender, I'll make no interest on the loan and could lose my money altogether if he defaults, but Kiva so far has a 100% repayment rate and microfinance in general has something like a 97% repayment rate, so the low risk of a little amount of money is worth it, if you consider helping a poor entrepreneur get on his feet a good social investment.

A few months ago, I saw a program on PBS about microlending and wondered how I could get involved with something like that. I just saw a post on I Will Teach You To Be Rich about Premal Shah, one of the founders of Kiva. It can't get much easier to get involved than to go to a website, pick a business to fund, and make a payment through Pay Pal.

I should be repaid over the next 12 months. I hope the $25 dollars will do much more in Ecuador than it would in my bank account.

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Comments

Hi Mike, thanks for posting this about Kiva. Just by mentioning it your writing, you are raising its awareness. Kiva's message could have longer shelf life as your readers keep coming back to your page; perhaps you could consider putting a permanent link on your page or even hosting a small banner. Thanks once again for your support of Kiva.org

Tim (volunteer with Kiva.org)

p.s. this comment doesn't have to be posted; I just wanted to make contact with you.

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