Kickin' micro-lending with Kiva

Community development, especially internationally, is a huge interest of mine, and I absolutely love Kiva for letting me participate. From my couch. In my PJs. 

It's a global micro-lending program, run solely through the web, that allows people to set up accounts and give loans to entrepreneurs around the world. Some are small projects, some are bigger, and all of them aim to help communities and families.

The entrepreneur (individual or group) asks for a specific amount of money, say $1000, and multiple Kiva donors lend any amount toward that goal until it's reached. The recipient then has a set term, often one year, to repay the loan - and once they've repaid it, it goes back into the various lenders' accounts so they can either loan that money to another entrepreneur or withdraw it. Some of the recipients even journal about their progress.

There are thousands of people in many sectors all around the globe looking for loans, which are distributed by local partner organizations, and you can search to your heart's content.

For example, I'm a health person. I studied in Uganda. I think women entrepreneurs rock. So I searched for all of those things and currently support a group in Uganda led by 34-year-old Rose, a mother of four, who owns and operates a drug store to raise money for her dream project: a clinic with special maternity section. Rose's group's total loan was $2000; they got their loan in February and have already paid half of it back.

Want to hear about Kiva successes from a different perspective? Check out Kiva Stories from the Field - it's a blog written by the Kiva Fellows around the world, who I won't go into, but if any of you ever become one I will be oh-so-jealous.