01AUG07 Kiva.org - Loans that Change Lives
If you haven't yet heard of Kiva.org, a San Francisco non-profit that at just two years old is already the leading online microcredit site, you're about to... It's a remarkably simple system that highlights the power of online communities. The Kiva.org Web site provides information about entrepreneurs in poor countries their photos, loan proposals and credit history and allows individuals to make direct loans to them.
Normally, microfinancing happens on a larger scale. Banks and other financial outfits lend small amounts of money to people who are too poor to get a traditional loan. But several organizations - like Kiva.org - now allow you to become a microlender... New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote about some loans that he's made through Kiva.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=FEEDROOM186917
Direct and straightforward lending to individuals in developing countries is finally here, and you don't have to be a Bill Gates to drastically change people's lives anymore. For those who wonder what they can do to help fight poverty, one option is to sit down at your computer and become a microfinancier. Now the only question is who to lend your support to, the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a barber in Tajikistan, or a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic??
If you haven't yet heard of Kiva.org, a San Francisco non-profit that at just two years old is already the leading online microcredit site, you're about to... It's a remarkably simple system that highlights the power of online communities. The Kiva.org Web site provides information about entrepreneurs in poor countries their photos, loan proposals and credit history and allows individuals to make direct loans to them.
Normally, microfinancing happens on a larger scale. Banks and other financial outfits lend small amounts of money to people who are too poor to get a traditional loan. But several organizations - like Kiva.org - now allow you to become a microlender... New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote about some loans that he's made through Kiva.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=FEEDROOM186917
Direct and straightforward lending to individuals in developing countries is finally here, and you don't have to be a Bill Gates to drastically change people's lives anymore. For those who wonder what they can do to help fight poverty, one option is to sit down at your computer and become a microfinancier. Now the only question is who to lend your support to, the owner of a TV repair shop in Afghanistan, a barber in Tajikistan, or a single mother running a clothing shop in the Dominican Republic??
posted by Ants at 10:59 p.m.
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