Made two loans today on Kiva and found a couple of articles that dive in-depth on how Kiva works. The more I look into it it just starts to make even more sense to give. Read on and start giving. You can see all my loans here at The Chaosactive Foundation page. Join me in changing a lil’ bit of the world for good.
Kiwanga Twegatte Group, Mukono, Uganda
Birungi Agnes is the leader of her lending group in Mukono. She is a single mother of three children. Two of her children are in school and the other is a baby. She also takes care of one dependant. Agnes has had a salon in Kiwanga for five years doing both women and men’s hairstyles. Ever since she started using loans in her business, Agnes has been able to grow her business. She makes more profit compared to the time before the loans. She needs a loan to be able to restock her salon with more hair oils, weaves, hairpieces and chemicals so that she can treat her customers to their satisfaction.
Hope Group 2, Mukono, Uganda
Ssaku Grace is 45 years old and divorced with seven children of her own in her care. She has been in the business of selling clothes from Kikko for nine years, from which she makes about $315 in profit a week, although she still faces the challenge of lacking enough capital. She makes certain that her stock is of good quality, which attracts more customers. Grace has hopes of building a house for her children plus educating them to the University for Self Reliance in the future. She needs a loan to be able to buy more quality clothes for resale.
In-Depth Look into how Kiva works
http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/kiva-is-not-quite-what-it-seems.php
Kiva is the path-breaking, fast-growing person-to-person microlending site. It works this way: Kiva posts pictures and stories of people needing loans. You give your money to Kiva. Kiva sends it to a microlender. The lender makes the loan to a person you choose. He or she ordinarily repays. You get your money back with no interest. It’s like eBay for microcredit.
http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/matt-flannery-kiva-ceo-and-co-founder-replies.php
Kiva doesn’t believe that lending is a silver-bullet, poverty alleviating mechanism. We do believe, though, that lending is one meaningful tool in a larger set of tools that the development community can use to alleviate poverty. Currently, the lending experience is highlighted on our website, while “plus services” such as savings and education are not. This doesn’t mean that we don’t believe they are beneficial or that they wouldn’t be successful on the web. Last year, I spent a few weeks in Cambodia and witnessed dozens of women who were given a savings account for the first time, thanks to our MFI partners there. Rather than save under the mattress, they were creating accounts with an MFI. In a dangerous place like Cambodia, this is an incredible service.
http://www.kiva.org/about/how/
