Kiva-Why I loaned Alice $25
I made my first loan of $25 to an entrepreneur through Kiva in September, 2007. Someone on an online forum talked about having lent money through Kiva. Intrigued, I asked him for more information and received an invite to join Kiva through email. Upon doing some research, I found that Kiva gave small loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world. The overall delinquency rate on their loans is a little over 2%, which is not too bad.
Kiva posts the profiles of entrepreneurs seeking financing. Most entrepreneurs are looking for around $1,000. I decided to take a chance and lent a female entrepreneur in Africa $25 towards her loan request, which is the minimum one can loan on Kiva. The great thing about Kiva is you can use several criteria in choosing a person to loan money to. I wanted my loan to have the most impact. I decided to loan my money to a woman with children in Africa. Women on the African continent have it rough and suffer a lot of discrimination and poverty. My $25 financed a small portion of an $1,100 loan, with a term of 17 months. In 10 months, the loan was repaid in full. I have re-lent that original $25 a total of four times without losing a dime of it.
My third loan was just paid back in full today, so I wanted to find another person to loan my money to. Searching for women in Africa, I found Alice, who is a widow with seven children. Alice has run a provision store in Ghana for the last 10 years. All seven of her children are in school and Alice wants all of them to be educated. Illiteracy is a huge problem on the African continent. The loan is being processed through Sinapi Aba Trust, which has loaned close to $3 million in the last two years with a 0% delinquency rate. They must be doing something right.
I am hoping that Alice continues to be successful in her endeavors and raises seven well educated children who will do their best to lift their country out of poverty. My measley $25 loan will hopefully make an impact in Alice’s life.
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