blog link

blog link
bloglink
Showing posts with label kiva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kiva. Show all posts

Friday, November 16, 2012

We help a man in Kosovo start a stable

Well it's that time again - my monthy KIVA plug.

If you're one of the 126 people who have joined us through BIG FAMILY little income in helping people help themselves through this fantastic program, shoot over to KIVA because the monthly repayments from your previous loans will be trickling back into your account now we've reached the 15th and you can lend it out again!

This month Tracey and the kids have decided to help Idriz from Kosovo. This is our first loan in Kosovo, which is a land locked European country near Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Bolgaria. KIVA makes loans in 66 countries and over the last couple of years we've loaned people money in 44 of these.

Once we saw Idriz's application we knew immediately we would be helping him reach his dream of starting a farm and buying his first cow. The guy is a Hugh Laurie doppelganger, isn't he?

Kiva works with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred percent of your loan is sent to these microfinance institutions, which we call Field Partners, who administer the loans in the field.

100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes directly towards funding loans; Kiva does not take a cut. Furthermore, Kiva does not charge interest to our Field Partners, who administer the loans.

Here's what Hugh's, sorry Idriz's, loan request has to say about him:

"Idriz, thirty-nine years old, is married and has three children between the ages of one and five years old. He works on a farm, earning a very low salary, and his wife is a housewife who stays at home to care for the home and the children. 

Idriz has always wanted to have his own small farm, but he could not. Now he is requesting a loan in order to start a small stable and buy a cow. This loan will help him to cut family expenses, such as those for milk and other dairy products. In the future, he hopes to expand his farm. 

His goal is to give his children a better education. Idriz wants to thank all Kiva lenders for their support!"

Kiva gives you the chance to make small loans to borrowers working to start businesses and improve their lives. Loans are made up of $25 contributions and when the repayments come back into your KIVA account you get to lend the money out again or take it back. We're already lending on Kiva and thought you'd like to join us!

Here's a link if you'd like to have a look. KIVA




Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)







Tuesday, October 16, 2012

We help a father of 9 in Mozambique

This is our 58th loan through KIVA!

Here it is, my monthly KIVA plug. I love what this organisation does and also how helping people through it makes me feel.

This month we're helping Armando who lives in Mozambigue. He wants this loan to buy a cow to butcher and sell at a profit so he can support his family, which includes two grandchildren.

KIVA is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, KIVA lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. Best of all (from our budget's point of view) the money comes back to us in repayments and then we get to lend it out again to some other family :)

Here's what Armando's KIVA application had to say:

"Armando is married and the father of 9 children, 2 of whom are still in School. He lives in his own house with his family and supports 2 grandchildren who live with him.

He is a military pensioner and with this loan he intends to buy one head of cattle to put down and resell the meat."

KIVA gives you the chance to make small loans to borrowers working to start businesses and improve their lives. We're already lending on Kiva and thought you'd like to join me!

Here's a link - LINK!





Wednesday, August 22, 2012

We help a go-getter of a woman in Bolivia

This week we had some payments come in late (they're usually in our KIVA account around the 15th/16th) so I've added $8 so I can lend out another $25 and gone looking for someone to help. Which didn't take long.

Sarah was actually the very first loan available. I knew I was going to lend to her the moment I saw her photo - any woman who can BBQ gets my vote :)

Here's what her KIVA application said:

"Sarah is 31 years old and is single. She makes a living selling ‘chorizo’ (seasoned pork sausage) sandwiches in the most populous street market in the city of El Alto. Her products are very sought after. 

This loan is her first with the institution. Sarah is going to use this loan to buy furnishings for the eatery that she is going to start for her business. Her reason for applying for this loan is that she wants to provide greater convenience to her customers and to produce in greater quantity her products and increase her sales and therefore her earnings. She is very interested in the way in which Kiva works; it seems very noble to her. 

Sarah faces challenges in her business such as continuing to study in the university and also she helps her little brother who depends on her. Sarah is a very responsible person as she has to take care of her brothers. Her wish is to become a professional and have her own restaurant and help her little brother until he becomes a professional."

What I love especially about this way of helping people is my dollar goes a long way. I help someone and they pay back my money. Then I lend that same money to the next person. For a small amount of money up front I can go on helping people for years. As I see it I'm recycling my charity dollars :) We can even withdraw the repaid dollars if we want.

If you want to take KIVA out for a test run they have a 'trial' offer at the moment - you can join and lend someone else's money to someone of your choice so you can see how the whole thing works. Then, if you think it's something you'd like to be involved in, you can add your own cash to the cause.




Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

We help children in Columbia to access icecream

Today we decided to help a young man in Columbia with an icrecream business. We like the idea of helping Jose because has a heap of kids, plus we like the idea of kids in his neighbourhood having access to icecream because icecream = smiles.

Here's what the KIVA site had to say about Jose:

"José buys blocks of ice and ice cream treats to stock his carts, which he uses to travel around and sell ice cream, to the delight of the children in his area. He wants to invest in repairing his tricycles and purchasing ice cream products to make his business more effective.

His goal is to eventually finish construction of his house and improve his living conditions, since his home and family were affected by heavy rains. José is grateful for the support he has received, as he has been able to acquire loans with reasonable payment plans. With the support from previous loans, he has been able to increase his working capital and invest in his business.

José is a young man of 26 who owns a business selling ice cream from a vehicle that goes round the streets of the city. The business is called "Yiuleima Ice cream." He lives with his wife; they have 5 children aged between 1 and 11 years. He dreams of seeing them prosper after having been given a quality education, and it is into this that he puts all his efforts.

His business was born two years ago, prompted by his father who has also been working in this line of business for over 5 years. When José started, he invested in a tricycle and gave it to his brother so he could start selling. As he realized the business that had resulted from this, he made two more tricycles. He hired two salespeople, and later added himself as well. Currently he sells throughout the beach and the two salespeople sell in a nearby township and some surrounding neighborhoods. He has approximately 1500 customers, and he works from 2:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. He lives in his own home with two of his children, as the other three live with their mother and grandmother. 

He lives in his own home with his spouse and two of his children. José loves his work, so wants to expand his coverage. He is very happy because he has the support of his family and his brother also works in this business. His infrastructure is two freezers located in his mother's house, where he stores the product and he plans to use his Kiva loan to replace expensive financial liabilities. These actions will allow rapid growth of the business. "


KIVA helps entrepreneurs the world over by giving them access to small loans for stock, seed, livestock or repairs. Whatever they need. It's called microfinance and the loans we make are usually too small for the bigger institutions to consider. The KIVA community pulls together to make up the requested loans, with most people contributing a mere US$25 to any one loan. In time this money is paid back and then we can once again lend the money out to someone else - the same $25 can help many people over a period of time. This is why we love KIVA so much, a small contribution goes a long long way. We've put in just over $250 which has helped us fund $900 in borrowings.

If you'd like to check out KIVA for yourself, here's a LINK. At the moment there's a promotion going where they let you make a loan using a sponsor's money, so you can experience what KIVA is all about without spending a cent. We think it's worth a look - but then we're big fans of teaching someone to fish rather than giving them a fish. Cheers :)



Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)



We help a farmer in El Salvador buy some good shit

Literally - shit. Manure in fact.

And in doing so we're helping a bloke named Mario better his family's situation. Miss5 liked his purple shirt but I was particularly taken with his hat.

Here's what KIVA has to say about Mario:

"Mario’s asking for a new loan because the new corn planting season is starting. He’ll buy manure and herbicide that’s needed to farm basic grains. The loan added to state funds will allow him to make a good investment that will help him prevent infestations or any other kind of damage in his crops so that production will be strengthened and crop yields will increase.

The previous loan increased corn production to be sold and he earned better income that led to home improvements. [PADECOMSM believes] that his economic situation is improving through his work in agriculture and his Kiva loan."

KIVA often offers free trials if anyone is interested in seeing if this wonderful institution is for them. We love it :)



Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)



We help the wheels on a bus in Mexico go round & round



KIVA has a promotion going at the moment where not only do the people who join the cause get a free loan to trial the whole process, they people they join through also get to make a loan without contributing any money. YAY! Of course, this means there's probably going to be a lot of KIVA posts coming up.

The kids have really enjoyed picking out someone to help. Tonight we picked Humberto from Mexico.

Here's what KIVA had to say about Humberto:

"Humberto is 69 years old. He is married and doesn’t have anyone who is economically dependent on him. He has always worked to get ahead and is very hard working. He manages a line of buses, and his wife is a homemaker. Humberto is requesting our help to buy another bus, because he wants to grow his business and provide his wife with a better quality of life. They will be grateful for the help that you are able give."

FREE TRIAL KIVA



Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)





Friday, July 27, 2012

We help a group of women in Senegal


Today we added $3.54 to the repayments in our Kiva account and for our 35th loan of $25 we helped a group of brightly dressed women in Africa, so they can improve their market businesses.

These women have such wonderful (and to me unpronounceable) names I thought I'd include them - Awa Tidiane, Aissatou Sidy, Dienabou, Mariama Aly, Aminata, Ansarou Diatta, Hawa Mamadou, Mariama, Dienabou Dembou, Oumou, Aissatou, Fatimatou, Aminata Balde, Kadiatou Saidou, Ramatoulaye Ismaila, Sona, Ousseynatou, Rougui, Mariama Poulo, Tombon , Bobo, Saibatou. I doubt many of them would  turn to look at me if I attempted to call their names out at their market.

Here's what their application said:

"This group comprises 23 women who are very active within their banc villageois, created in December 2010. They all come from the same neighborhood and they get along well with each other. Their main activity is small retail.

The group's featured borrower, Diènabou, is 36 years old. (She is sitting on the right-hand side in the photo, and raising her hand). She is married and the mother of five children, four boys and one girl.

She has a spot at the market, where she has been selling vegetables and groundnut paste for the past six years.

With this loan, she is planning to purchase some vegetables and groundnut paste at the weekly markets in the south-east. 

She will buy:

- 20 bags of onions, at a cost of 70,000 CFA francs, and will retail them for 120,000 CFA francs,
- 2 bags of eggplants, at a cost of 10,000 CFA francs, and will retail them for 15,000 CFA francs,
- 10 buckets of groundnut paste at a cost of 100,000 CFA francs, and will retail them for 130,000 CFA francs.
She will pay 15,000 CFA francs for handling and transportation costs.

After deducting operating costs and daily expenses, she will end up with an average net profit of 55,000 CFA francs every other week.

With the profits from her activity, she will be able to put some money into saving, assist her husband with the daily expenses, and buy a plot of land."

We love Kiva in part because we don't have a lot of spare cash to give away. With Kiva we can deposit $25 into our account and lend it to someone and then, when the money is repaid, we can either lend it out again or get our money back. We choose to top up our account by a couple of dollars each month, meaning we've so far put a total of $238.32 into our account but loaned out $875.

There's a FREE TRIAL going on over at KIVA at the moment, so if you want to see what it's all about before you put in your own money, press the link. LINK





Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)

Sunday, July 15, 2012

We help a young mum in Peru


This loan brings together two things I love - KIVA and coffee. It's a good day!!

For our 34th KIVA loan we've decided to help Rubi and her coffee crop. She needs money for organic fertilizer and I need my cup of Joe first thing in the morning or people die.

"Rubi is 25 years old and her life partner is Nino, with whom she has a daughter aged 7 months. The 3 live in their own house which they themselves constructed in the native community of Santa Teresa in the central forest.

Seven years ago she began working in agriculture in the countryside. Rubi and Nino now have 6 plots of land assigned to them by the community. In these they produce coffee, manioc, and annata. “In April, May and June, I harvest my 3 products; so, in those days I do not lack money and I can cover my debts,” Rubi comments. In addition, she can count on a culture of saving that permits her to cover expenses all year. For his part, her husband works as a day laborer on other parcels of land, thus obtaining income to pay some of their inevitable expenses. Rubi has just finished the harvest and sale of the final grains of coffee. For this reason, she will begin cleaning the land and maintaining their plants. For that reason, she needs to purchase sacks of organic fertilizer.

This is her 2nd loan through MFP. Rubi promises to be punctual in her monthly payments and she is grateful for the confidence and the help from her communal bank, “Los Ompicres”. With this money Rubi will be able to buy bags of fertilizer, whose price can be as high as 160 new sols per 60-kilo sack. She will purchase around 9 sacks for her coffee fields."

KIVA gives you the chance to make small loans to borrowers worldwide, helping expand opportunity and alleviate poverty. We chose someone to help and lend money in amounts of US$25 (with many lenders making up each loan) and, when the money is repaid, we lend it out again. It's kind of like recycling your charity dollars :)

KIVA has occasional free trials. If you'd like to see how it works using someone else's money, try this link -

Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Facebook Page
Our 'BIG FAMILY little income' Blog

'raising a family on little more than laughs'


(don't forget to thank our sponsors by clicking their links)


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

We help a photographer in Senegal buy a camera

Looks like we're helping this guy just
in time - his photo is all blurry.
It's the 15th!!

Which means the repayments from our previous loans start to trickle back into our account.

The beauty of this sort of charity is it helps people who are prepared to help themselves - it's the old 'give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for life' scenario. So they borrow money off you (you choose who) in US$25 increments (lots of people contribute to each loan to make up the total) and they pay it back in line with their agreed repayment schedule. Then you lend the same money out again.

If you're already involved in KIVA and have loaned out some money, chances are there's some in your account ready to be loaned back out, although if it's under $25 you might need to add a couple of dollars. Most months we add a few dollars - our KIVA account has about $220 in it now.

Tonight I've decided to help a family man named Kaba to upgrade to a better digital camera. He's a photographer so it's important part of his business.

Here's what Kaba's application had to say:

"Kaba is a professional reporter-photographer. He has been in this profession for a few years. This career is very profitable in his community and allows him to earn income that enables him to take care of the needs of his family and to save a part of his profits. He is married and father of two children. In order to acquire more powerful equipment, he is asking for a loan of 250,000 francs to buy a digital camera. His ambition is to open a photo finishing lab."

I especially wanted to help Kaba because he's a photographer like my lovely wife and it's the first time I've seen anyone on KIVA asking for a camera. It grabbed my attention.

If you'd like to try KIVA for yourself, they're again offering FREE TRIALS. Just click the link and pop over. THE LINK :)

Friday, April 20, 2012

We help some ladies in Tanzania get ahead

The reason I chose to help these ladies is they're from Tanzania and we haven't lent money to anyone in that country yet. I'm trying to fill in the map of Africa. 

The reason I chose to loan at all (had to add $14 to my account to bring it up to a loanable $25) was so I could draw attention to a post from Suzanne, who had some concerns about KIVA. Here's the article, which I think poses some fair questions - David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog

Personally I think KIVA is very transparent in it's operation and accountability - more-so than most and certainly enough for me. They don't skim money from the money we loan (their offices run from separate donations specific to their running costs). Similar topics about pre-payment of loans have been discussed on KIVA itself (I participated in one with other members of the Australia team). Some people were unaware the loans were funded before we loaned them our money and felt in some way ripped off. But most knew and understood the reasons the loans are handled the way they are and the benefits to the very people we're all trying to help.

In the end the points which settled the discussion were: a) without our money, the loans wouldn't happen b) if the loan defaults, we wear the loss. Therefore, no matter how you look at it, they're our individual loans to feel good about.

And now here are the details of the latest loan we're feeling good about :)



"Fatuma, who is in her late 30s, is married with four children. Her children go to school.

She has been selling charcoal for six years now. She explains that she works from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm daily, and is able to make a small monthly profit.
This would be her tenth loan from Tujijenge Tanzania. She used the previous loans, all of which she successfully repaid, to pay for her children's school fees, household expenses, a plot of land, and additional sacks of charcoal. She is seeking this loan to buy more sacks of charcoal. Her dream is to one day be able to build her own house.
She will share this loan with her loan group, named "Songa." The group is made up of 15 members, who will hold each other accountable for paying back their loans."








Wednesday, April 18, 2012

We help a mother of 8 in Uganda

This is our 28th KIVA loan!

That means our KIVA account, which currently has $207, has managed to fund $700 of loans (because as the money comes in we relend it).

Tracey chose to help Rose from Uganda stock her shop with sugar, salt, soap and cooking oil. We knew Tracey had found her loan when she got teary. Here's Rose's KIVA application:

"Rose lives in Kampala, Uganda. She is married and has eight children, four of whom are in school. She also takes care of additional family members (Old parents). Rose has a retail shop business. She has been in this business for 10 years and she works seven days out of every week. Rose sells her products in a shop, by means of retail. Rose has requested a loan of 1,500.000 Ugandan Shillings from MCDT SACCO, which she will use to buy more bags of sugar, cartons of salt, boxes of soap and jerrycans of cooking oil. The main business challenge(s) for Rose include thieves and transportation. Her goals and aspirations for her business are to start selling at wholesale and own a fully stocked shop. Rose lives in a home that she rents. She has access to electricity and piped water. Her major monthly expenses include school fees, rent and feeding the family."

Eight children plus looking after aged family members - we were never going past Rose.

"How do they do it?" Tracey asked me. "We think we struggle! We've got nothing to complain about."

It's so true. We love helping people out a little with our $25 loans each month. We love it even more if, as with this loan, it's entirely funded on repayments from our previous loans.



Monday, April 9, 2012

We help a woman in Peru get a whole village hammered

For our 27th KIVA loan, with the recommendation of KIVA newbie, Nick Haggarty (of Financial Freedom for Gens X & Y fame), we have gone with helping Yolanda from Peru and her dream of bringing together beer and tools under the one roof - it's pure marketing genius.

Now the whole village knows where to go to get hammered ;)

Joking aside, Yolanda is a savvy business woman who sees an opportunity to expand her business. All she needs is $1075, which most financial institutions would consider too small to bother with. This is why KIVA is so important.

Here is Yolanda's application:

 "Yolanda, 54, is a born leader. She lives with Walter, her husband of 28 years, and they have two children, Mabel and José, who they care for in their own house in the city of Chilca. She is the treasurer of her association and has always enjoyed managing money. Thanks to this, now she has a hardware store that is well stocked. She says business is going well, since she opens every day of the week. And since she his a hard worker, that's not all she does; she also sells food on Sunday from home. Her husband rents heavy equipment to state institutions and private constructors, and earns a monthly salary which pay for their children's university studies, so they can receive a good education.


Now she wants to expand her business and sell beer wholesale. They started selling beer not too long ago and now want to expand the business because demand is high and they have done well in the past few months. She belongs to the communal bank "IDME" and this is her 26th loan through MFP. She is counting on your support so she can continue toward her goals. She is committed to paying back the loan on time and is grateful to the communal bank because all of the members are responsible and caring.


Yolanda plans to use the loan to buy merchandise for her businesses, i.e. beer and hardware merchandise."

Our $25 was part of $1,075 which Yolanda needed to fulfill her dream. With Nick's money she was $50 closer to her dream. The best thing is, because this is microfinance, in six months we'll both have our money back in our KIVA accounts and we'll be able to lend it out again to someone else.

Press HERE to link over to the KIVA site to see what all this helping people is about :)


Friday, March 16, 2012

We help a group of people in the Congo grow their businesses

Our 26th KIVA loan is to a group of people in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here's what the application said about one of the applicants in this group - a woman called Bijoux.

Bijoux sells sacks of cement and beverages in detail. She has been in business since 1983. She has a solid experience in her business and it has prospered thanks to good management and accumulated profits. She is a loyal client of IMF HOPE RDC who has already received fourteen different loans and has repaid them correctly. She intends with the next loan to increase the inventory of her business by purchasing more sacks of cement and beverages to resell in order to generate additional profits. Currently, she earns a profit of US $150 every week. 

Bijoux is 47 years old, a widow and the mother of six children between 16 and 31 years old. Two of them go to school. Her dream is to become a wholesaler.

Link to KIVA

Thursday, March 15, 2012

We help a farmer in Tajikistan buy seeds & fertilizer


Our 25th KIVA loan is reaching out to a bloke in Tajikistan so he can expand his farming business. He's requested $1000 which he'll repay over 9 months. Sharofidin caught my attention as I trawled through the prospective borrowers, but it was when I noticed my lovely cousin, Jenni, had decided to lend him money that he won our support.

Here's what Sharofidin's application had to say:

"Sharofidin is a kind and honest man. He is married and is a responsible father of three children. He has been growing onions, melons and cereals for more than seven years. His wife is a homemaker. Sharofidin wants to expand his business so that he can get a good profit. He is asking for a loan with the purpose to buy seeds, mineral fertilizer and film. He hopes for your help and kindness."

There is a brief window of opportunity to test drive the KIVA experience at the moment using someone else's (his name is Reid Hoffman) money. KIVA will let you choose someone to help by putting $25 towards their loan - but it's KIVA's money, not yours (meaning the repayments of this one loan go back to Reid). It's a great opportunity to take KIVA for a test run to see if it's for you. 


KIVA Website Link



Monday, March 12, 2012

KIVA - FREE TRIAL (limited trials, so be quick)

Here's an opportunity to try out the KIVA way of helping people without laying down a cent of your own money.

KIVA is about giving people a hand, not a hand out. 

KIVA is an organisation which seeks to help less fortunate people by lending them money so they can improve their businesses and situations. It helps people by giving them an opportunity to buy stock, or seeds, or sewing machines, or bike taxis, or material, or tools, or cattle, or pigs, or building materials. 

We've helped people in 16 countries, from Uganda to Honduras, from Mongolia to Ukraine, from Peru to the Philippines.

And it feels great to help, I assure you.

KIVA is involved in microfinance, giving many people an opportunity to access a loan where, due to the small amounts of money they're looking for, they wouldn't necessarily be granted one by the conventional banking system.

With KIVA, you don't donate money and hope it gets to where you wanted it to go. YOU choose who you lend it to. And when it's repaid, you can lend it out again. We've put just under $200 into our KIVA account and we've made 24 x $25 loans over a couple of years. That's $600 worth of help we've given with the same $200.

So if you think this sounds like the sort of thing you might like to be involved in, click on the link below and check it out.


It really is a wonderful experience to help these people so directly. 

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

We help a young man in Lebanon start a business

Because our coffee man from Honduras repaid his loan a couple of months ahead of time we had $25 sitting in our account ready to be lent out to another person living in difficult conditions.

When I read how Mohamad from Lebanon was 19 and had been working for 5 years (meaning he started when he was 14) I didn't have to look any further: we're helping him to get ahead in life. When my oldest two were 14 they were flat out doing the dishes and making their beds. I really hope this bloke makes a go of it.

Here's the blurb from his posting on KIVA:

"Mohamad is a 19-year-old single man. Five years ago Mohamad started his own business, dealing with manufacturing aluminum doors, closets & windows. He was too young to start a business, but he had his family to take care of and to help in making their living.

Mohamad is a hard worker, he insists on improving himself as much as he can. That's why he has applied for a Youth Loan from Kiva partner, Al Majmoua, in order to buy necessary raw materials with special prices. 

Mohamad misses his childhood and hopes to expand his business in a way that when he thinks of making a family in the future, he has to be sure that his children will have a safe and healthy childhood with all their needs to be met. Mohamad insists on expanding his business in the future."

KIVA gives people a hand, not a hand out. A person can borrow money to buy pigs or seed or in some way improve their business, and then they pay it back. This means you're able to re-loan the same money over and over. We've put just under $200 into our KIVA account, and we've loaned $700 to these good people over the course of the last two years. And if ever we want to stop lending through KIVA we can pull our money out once it's repaid.

If you've ever wondered where your money is going when you donate to organisations overseas, this could well be the kind of transparency you're after. Or maybe you just like helping people :)

CLICK HERE to pop over to KIVA and see what it's all about






Friday, February 17, 2012

We help some blokes in Zimbabwe improve their businesses



For our 23rd loan we decided we should help some guys, because our stats show we've been primarily lending to women lately. Well we don't want to appear sexist.


This loan will be paid back over 8 months. Because it's a group loan the risk of non payment is lowered, or so I'm told on various lender's forums. Not sure if it's true, because we've never experienced a non payment.


Here's the low down on one of the gentlemen we're lending to:


"This is 34 year old Mutizwa from Mutare, the capital of Minicaland province in Zimbabwe. He is married and has five children, four attending school. Mutizwa runs a retail business of selling clothes. The business has been in operation for 13 years. He says the main challenges faced are high customs duty on clothes. Mutizwa has requested a loan of $150 to buy more clothes for resale. He says the extra income generated as a result of this loan will allow him to improve the family's welfare. In the future, Mutizwa plans to open a clothing shop in the central business district."


Thursday, February 16, 2012

We help a woman from South Sudan educate her seven kids

It's that time of the month again. LOVE IT!

This is our 22nd loan through KIVA.

The money from our previous loans has started rolling back in. This month we're giving a hand (not a hand out) to Anna from South Sudan. Anna was after $375 to help her to purchase sugar to on-sell at a stall to make money to educate her kids. We can take so much for advantage in Australia because we really are the lucky country - our kids are guaranteed an education. We're excited about helping Anna give her kids an education.

"Anna is a 42-year-old married woman with seven children, six of whom are in school. She has had a business selling food from a stall in Kator, South Sudan for five years.

Anna is requesting this loan through BRAC South Sudan to purchase sugar. She will use her extra income from this loan to pay school fees."


Click HERE to have a look at KIVA and think about helping someone. You might like it.




Popular Posts