Cool as Kiva: Another Way to Save the World

Now that I have a steady income (whoot!) I've finally started using Kiva. I loaned money to two different people, both women in Africa. The first is Zainabu Malunda, a women from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She owns a clothing store and wants to expand her business. And I was privileged enough to get to help her! The second is the Kamuli A2 group in Kireka, Uganda. This is a group of 6 women who invest the money in their respective businesses and guarantee each other's loan. I thought that was a pretty cool concept so I decided to support them as well.

I was really impressed with Kiva's site. It was very easy to use and offered search criteria if you were interested in loaning to a specific type of person (I chose women in Africa for instance.) It also gives you a picture and description of the person the loan is going to, what they will do with it, and how it will help them (for example, sending their children to school, hiring other women in the village, etc.). It also gives you information on the agency the loan is going through. My favorite feature, by far, was the ability to see all the other Kiva users who have also loaned to that person. Again, for example, my Kamuli A2 group needed $2400. All together, 44 people loaned them that money, including me. I thought that was a very exciting thing to be involved in. Each user can make a profile which is amusing I guess, but doesn't seem to have any real point. The best thing of all is you can loan as a little, or as much as you want. And you can use PayPal to make your loan directly from your bank account if you choose. And Kiva develops a portfolio of all your loans so you can keep update on the progress. Overall, it was a very user-friendly, well designed site with a great purpose. Try it yourself today with as little as a $25 donation to change a life.