Image © Kiva
Do you know about Kiva? They work with microfinance institutions to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred percent of your loan is sent to these partners, who administer them for you. All you need to do is decide who to support – which turns out to be the trickiest part.
The lady pictured above is Maritza, and she works as a dressmaker in Ecuador. She makes and repairs clothes, and when she doesn’t have enough sewing work coming in she sells juices. Her loan is to help her with the costs of buying haberdashery and tools.
Kiva are currently offering the opportunity to lend $25 for free, so it seemed like a perfect time to get involved. One of the aims for my mythical business (I’ll start it one day…) is to make enough money to be able to give some of it to Kiva. I have no idea when or if that might ever happen, so I figured I might as well start now. You can do the same, if you like.
(That’s an affiliate link, so don’t feel obliged to use it. I don’t think anything exciting happens to me if you do, but I will be able to see who’s signed up by means of following it.)