This week I made my first Kiva loan. It has been on my list for a couple of years, ever since I read about it in a magazine. I love the idea. You can give as low as $25 and help fund a loan for someone who needs money for various reasons. When your money is repaid, you can use the money again to fund another loan.
I spent quite a bit of time trying to decide who I wanted to fund. I wanted a loan that was almost fully funded (because my donation wasn't enough to make much of a dent!) and I wanted to only fund women, and I wanted it to be used for a business of some sort so that the person was going to be able to make money with the loan.
I ended up finishing off two loans, a woman in Tajikistan who is purchasing clothes to resell, and a man from Mongolia who builds gers (yurts) for a living. Yes, he's a man, but he impressed me with his story.
Check it out for yourself, www.kiva.org
