A few weeks ago, some friends and I threw some $20 bills into a kitty and became investors in a mini-mart in Ghana, a clothing shop in Azerbaijan, and two retail establishments in Samoa. (That's a photo of Patience Baah, mother of two, in her food shop in Ghana. She's about to expand it to create a dining area for her customers.)
We are microlenders through an organization called Kiva. (www.kiva.org). Micro-lending makes small loans to poor people to start or expand businesses and build better lives for themselves. The loans are almost always repaid. On the Kiva website, you can browse, find a project that interests you and make a loan of $25 or more. When enough lenders sign up for a particular project, the loan is funded, going through existing grass-roots organizations in the region that manage the loans, disbursing and collecting repayments. They report back on the borrower's progress via the easy-to-use Kiva web site.
Samoan shopkeeper Moevao Nuutasi requested an $800 loan "to purchase soda, snacks, soaps, mutton flaps, turkey tails, and chicken" for her shop, Victory Mini-Mart. She has begun paying it back; my friends and I will likely reinvest in another loan.
On the Kiva website, you can create a profile. My favorite profile is of a co-lender, Natalie. Occupation: baby. Why does she lend? "I've got extra babysugar!"
So do I, Natalie. Let's put it to good use and buy some turkey tails and mutton flaps.
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Want to learn more about microlending through kiva.org? Check out New York TImes reporter Nicholas Kristof's video of a surprise visit he made to his business partner, a baker in Kabul, Afghanistan (simply cut and paste this link into your browser):
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=FEEDROOM186917
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