Location: Lopez Jaena, Misamis Occidental, Philippines
Amount Repaid: $175.00 of $175.00

Mrs Imelda Morequio is now busy in her sari store. She was able to purchase more product to sell in her sari store and was able to sustain the needs of her children.

Location: Kihihi, Uganda
Amount Repaid: $1,520.83 of $1,825.00

Kiconco Grace used this loan to improve her second hand clothing business. With the money she bought more clothes that she has been reselling ever since. With increased profits has come an improvement in the welfare status of the family, too. She is now able to juggle her family responsibility roles much more efficiently.

Above are a couple of examples of people getting loans through Kiva. Kiva was started by Matt and Jessica Flannery in 2005. Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. It is dedicated to the notion that small loans made to poor people can lift them out of poverty and help them and their families live a better life.

Kiva partners with microfinance field partners (http://www.kiva.org/partners) who find farmers, shop owners, food manufacturers, consumer product distributors, craftspeople, etc. in 201 countries. The field partners help the local business owners formulate the desired loan amount and how it will be used, submit pictures, and distribute the loans. Kiva takes this information, uses volunteers to publish it to the Kiva website, and provides a platform where you and I can use a credit card to fund the requested loan. The minimum is $25.

In many cases the field partners help form accountability groups, groups of usually women who promise to hold each other accountable to pay back the loans on schedule. Social community peer pressure is very strong in many cultures and this has been very effective. Kiva’s loan repay rate is 98.84% which is higher than in traditional banking. The recipients of the loan pay interest which is kept by the NGO to cover its operational expense. There is no interest paid to you and me as lenders. The repaid capital can be withdrawn by the lender or can be re-loaned to another small business owner needing a micro-loan. By connecting people Kiva creates relationships beyond financial transactions, and builds a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

I am motivated to support Kiva because I want to build a better world, where there is lasting peace for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and yours, too. I believe my dream has a greater likelihood of happening when poverty is erased. On the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the need for survival, which includes adequate food, clean water, housing, clothing, medical care, safety. People will do what they need to do if they are denied these things. But if people can see their children living healthy lives, can feel that they earn what they need, that there are fruits to their labor which satisfy their basic needs, they will be empowered to improve their communities, expand education, engage in a more robust economy, support and engage in a more representational government and live in peace. People who have nothing have nothing to lose. People who have a satisfactory lifestyle have a lot to lose. This type of thinking is supported by a number of theorists as shown on this quote below from:
http://money.howstuffworks.com/microlending.htm

“Some democratic theorists believe that free market capitalism in a globalized world economy reduces the chance that international conflicts will become wars. Once countries become interdependent, trade between nations becomes too valuable to risk by going to war [source: Bandow]. Under this theory, microlending helps prevent conflict by funding budding capitalist enterprises. Microlending contributes from the ground up; it’s the opposite of trickle-down economic theory. This is one reason the Nobel Committee awarded Muhammad Yunus the Peace Prize in 2006. “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty,” the Committee stated of its decision [source: Lovgren].”

You can partner with me in supporting Kiva. Entrepreneurs supporting entrepreneurs is grass roots and personal. It means you can talk to or visit someone you are lending to. It’s a way for us to make a difference without having to be big corporation or a foundation.

Kiva allows for the setup of lending teams on its website www.kiva.org. Driving Improved Results is a lending team http://www.kiva.org/team/driving_improved_results waiting for you to join and make your first loan of as little as $25. As for myself, I will make a loan to a third world entrepreneur in the name of each new client. That way I can help two entrepreneurs at the same time.

Here are some facts about Kiva.

• Total value of all loans made through Kiva: $155,541,500
• Number of Kiva Users who have funded a loan:    475,005
• Number of entrepreneurs that have received a loan through Kiva:    400,078
• Percentage of Kiva loans which have been made to women entrepreneurs:    82.10%
• Number of Kiva Field Partners (microfinance institutions Kiva partners with):    119
• Average loan size (This is the average amount loaned to an individual Kiva Entrepreneur. Some loans – group loans – are divided between a group of borrowers.):    $384.25
• Average total amount loaned per Kiva Lender (includes reloaned funds):    $208.24
• Average number of loans per Kiva Lender:    6.13
• Kiva is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, incorporated in November 2005.
• “Kiva” is a Swahili word which means “unity” or “agreement”.
• Kiva is the world’s first online micro-lending platform.
• Previously, Kiva CEO and Co-Founder Matt Flannery was an engineer at Tivo. Premal Shah, Kiva President, was a product manager at PayPal.
• PayPal provides Kiva with free payment processing. Kiva is the first account at PayPal with a free payment processing agreement.
• Kiva is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. and employs 34 full-time staff members.

Please join our lending team and make a loan that helps an entrepreneur grow a business to support a family and a growing economy. Both your children and my children will thank you.