Interesting site I found, called Kiva.org, which allows you to provide small loans to small businesses in developing countries. They will not allow you to provide for the entire loan, to force you to diversify your risk, and I do not think you recieve any interest on the loan. It is entirely a good faith deposit. I do not think there is such a thing as credit for these people.
A typical loan would be something to the effect of $500 for the person to buy a bigger cart to take his vegetables to the market. Considering I’ve never seen anyone take vegetables to a market in a cart, I think it is a pretty cool cause to get involved in. For a loan like that, one would only put up $25 or $50, and you usually recieve journal updates through the course of the loan, which lasts 6-12 months.
I gave a $25 loan to Jean Paul Aho in Cote D’Ivoire to purchase more fruit. I like the fact that he has a track record with the group. I also threw in a 10% tip to Kiva to help support their costs. I think it will be an interesting experience and if I do get the money back, I will throw it into a new loan threw Kiva, plus add more on. I invite you to join me in the Jean Paul loan and we can track his progress together.
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