Kiva Update
Posted by Jim | October 24, 2009 | 2 Comments
Photo: Christolakis
Reading through Grace Boyle’s recent article on microfinance over at Small Hands, Big Ideas reminded me that I should post a quick update on my experiences with kiva.org. I’m happy to report that my original loan, to a woman starting a small bakery in Peru, in now 83% repaid. I’ve since used those repayments to make loans to three additional entrepreneurs:
- A cafe-owner in Ukraine to purchase new equipment;
- A woman in Ghana to expand her grocery business; and
- A group in the Dominican Republic selling fruit and vegetables.
Each loan’s repayment status is easily accessible on the “My Portfolio” page of Kiva’s site. Kiva does a great job of notifying you when you’ve received a repayment, and makes it easy to withdraw the funds back into a paypal account if you don’t want to make another loan.
I’m very excited to hear the financial results from the bakery in Peru once that loan is fully repaid next month (that’s the future-mba in me talking). Hopefully, my small loan was able to create opportunity and make meaningful change in someone else’s life.
Let me know about any experiences you’ve had with Kiva, or your other favorite microfinance institutions.
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2 Responses to “Kiva Update”
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October 25th, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
Jim – I loved hearing your Kiva update. It’s great to see how your loan has been re-payed and look at the growth overtime. Thanks for sharing!
Grace Boyle ´s last blog ..Friday Linky Love
October 25th, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Grace – thanks for the inspiration! Let me know what you think of “The Blue Sweater” if you get a chance to read it.