Kiva

Although, I am a person of limited financial means I still feel the need to give a little to those that have less. I may be un-wealthy, but being poor in a first world country can seem like being rich to someone in a third world country.

One year around Christmas, I was complaining to my husband that I didn’t have money to buy people presents. It’s not that I was feeling sorry for myself or that I thought I had to buy presents, it’s just that I really enjoy giving gifts; I like it even more than receiving gifts.

I was trying to figure out how to make the best use of my money and I decided I really wanted to give some money to charity. I remembered reading about an organization called Kiva. Kiva lets you lend money to a specific person to help them get out of poverty. The great thing is that it is a loan, which means that as long as it gets paid back you can turn around and lend it to someone else. I decided to make a loan every year around the holidays and never collect the repaid loan, but instead keep re-loaning. I started off with just $25 and every year I add another $25.

So far, I’ve lent money to a woman in Samoa to help her buy supplies for her ice-cake (popsicle) business; I’ve helped a mother in Mexico expand her second hand clothing enterprise; and most recently I helped a widow in Viet Nam buy more livestock and go to school to learn to be a tailor. I’m not really helping these women, I’m empowering them.

If the Gods were to provide me with $5,000 to give away to charity I would not give it away, I would lend it to entrepreneurs applying for loans through Kiva. Can you imagine the good that this money could do, not once,but over and over again? These are good, hardworking people who are not asking for a hand-out they want the dignity and responsibility that comes with repaying a loan. The amounts they are asking for are small, but they could not get these funds without the help of micro-financiers.

It sounds grandiose to say that I make people’s dreams come true, but I do and so can you. And we don’t need $5,000 to do it, we can do it $25 at a time.

This post was inspired by Prompt #5 of this weeks Writers Workshop hosted by Mama Kat.

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