Green Taxi

I am glad to announce that my first loan to Kiva, a person-to-person micro-lending web site for third world countries, has been repaid in full.

I loaned $25 to Jean-Paul Aho in Cote D’Ivoire back in October of 2007, part of a $1100 loan in total.  He used the money purchase new fruit for his food sales business.  Over the past nine months he has slowly paid back the money on a monthly basis.  The loan term was supposed to be 15 months but it seems he has paid back the full amount early, giving me a chance to extend that $25 to others now.

To begin my search I decided to switch parts of the world and look for a candidate in Central America for my next loan.  I settled on Jhony Antonio Zapata Flores.  His wife and he run a clothing business, which inspired me a bit due to my girlfriends involvement in the clothing industry.  They will use the money to purchase more inventory for their women’s and children clothing, which should hopefully help their business a bit.

I encourage others to join in this charity campaign by giving via Kiva.  This sort of charity is extremely beneficial.  Not only do you get to decide first hand where your money actually goes, but you get to see feedback on the results as well.  The loans are the right type of charity as well.  They spur economic growth for the community rather than just providing the next meal for a person.  Lastly, if the loan does get paid off, as mine did, you get to reuse that charitable donation by putting it into another loan!

*image source: amazonaws.com

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