“Change the world” is something you probably hear on a regular basis – now, here’s your chance to actually help change someone’s world around. Kiva is an organization that is helping to eliminate poverty by connecting people all over the world through the process of micro-lending.
Through Kiva’s website, you can lend your money (as little or as much as you would like), say $20, to an entrepreneur in a third world country to help them get their personal business off the ground and make their way towards financial independence. Your money goes toward the larger loan that that person needs to purchase supplies and other necessities for their business.
The most interesting part about the process is that you can search through profiles of different entrepreneurs and actually select who you would like to loan your money to. After this, you will get updates on how your entrepreneur is doing and what your money helped them do. For example, Amada is an entrepreneur in the Dominican Republic who used her loan to purchase the supplies to make her own recipe of sweet bread to sell, along with vegetables she was already selling. Her income increased as a result and now her family eats healthier and put a cement floor in their house to cover the dirt they were previously living on. Pretty cool, hey?
After your loan is repaid, you can re-lend it to another entrepreneur of your choosing, and the cycle continues…like having a pen-pal, except way more life-changing!