Beverly Wu : the official website

First Foray into Lending with Kiva Microfunds – kiva.org

03 Jan 2011 2 Comments

by beverly in Doing Good, News, Personal Tags: 2011, arts, Cambodia, crafts, donate, gift card, gift certificate, goal, housing, Kenya, Kiva, Kiva.org, knitting, Lebanon, Mexico, microcredit, microfinance, microfunds, microloan, Mongolia, motorcycle, paraguay, peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, team canada, vegan, vegetarian, weaving

So whatever happened to that Kiva gift card that Steve gave me for Christmas?

See http://www.kiva.org/lender/beverly for more information.

The entrepreneurs I chose to support:

1. Villa Universitaria Group in San Ignacio, Paraguay – Retail: To buy meat, vegetables, dairy products and others. http://www.kiva.org/lend/261074

2. Fortunata in Huancayo, Peru – Retail: To purchase mixed vegetables and cheeses, products that are in great demand in the capital. http://www.kiva.org/lend/261218

3. Marilou Landao in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Retail: To purchase more stock to sell in her general store. http://www.kiva.org/lend/261243

4. Amarjargal Suren in Hovd, Hovd, Mongolia – Food: To purchase flour in bulk from Ulaanbaatar for her bakery. http://www.kiva.org/lend/261267

5. Sharito Group in Tecoanapa Guerrero, Mexico – Food: To invest in buying more groceries such as: milk, oil, soft drinks, eggs, pasta, rice, sugar, salt, water, toilet paper and soap for their grocery stores. http://www.kiva.org/lend/261473

6. Jawaher in Nabatieh, Lebanon – Services: To buy special-price textiles for her tailoring business. http://www.kiva.org/lend/261485

7. Munafa Group in Kabala, Sierra Leone – Food: To buy food to resell in the food market. http://www.kiva.org/lend/258705

8. Mikoroshini Group in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania – Agriculture (Poultry): Increase the capital of the business and buy new broiler chicks. http://www.kiva.org/lend/257141

9. Jane Nyambura in Thika-Town, Kenya – Arts: To buy yarn and buttons for her knitting business. http://www.kiva.org/lend/258330

10. San Mom in Khsach Kandal district, Cambodia – Arts: To buy weaving materials. http://www.kiva.org/lend/262473

For those who received Kiva gift cards for Christmas: Hold on till 12:01am January 1st! (er, note for next year…) It was interesting to see that ALL LOANS quickly got funded after Christmas, but Kiva posted a bunch of new loans on January 1st, and apparently do so the first of every month.

Over 98% of Kiva loans have been fully repaid. There is some currency exchange loss or default possible, but all in all, its nice to get most of the loan money back so you can loan it out to someone else or withdraw the funds to your PayPal account.

From a donor’s point of view, it’s very refreshing to not have your money disappear into an abyss of good intentions. The microfinance model encourages and respects ability and accountability, and I think these are wonderful things. Also, it allows you to lend in $25 increments so as make the financing on the part of the lender accessible, to be part of funding a larger loan of anywhere between ~$200 to $10,000.

And, you can choose to loan to the interests you have:
support women: lend to female entrepreneurs
support men: lend to male entrepreneurs
the arts: lend to craftmakers or weavers or knitters (I’m super crafty so this is my special interest)
the vegans: choose to not contribute to butcher shops or animal farming
the motorcycle enthusiasts: choose to help someone purchase a motorcycle for personal or business transport
if you had help from friends and family in buying your first home: help someone with personal housing expenses

etcetera etcetera.

And you can join a team from your local geographical area, university, etc that supports your interests.

Some teams formally or informally set lending goals as well – not to pressure people in any way, but to have something to work towards for those who are able to spare the dough.

For example, some members of Team Canada http://www.kiva.org/team/team_canada have informally set a goal to reach $1 Million in total loans for Team Canada by the end of 2011, and members can participate (or not) as they see fit, whether they are able to financially contribute more, or perhaps re-lend the money they have previously lent out that has been paid back, as many supporters of Kiva are themselves on fixed incomes.

A member of Team Canada has also recently set up a Facebook Fan Page called “Team Canada – Kiva Lenders”, so make sure to join that too, if you are interested in connecting with other Kiva lenders from Canada.

The first repayments from the loans I just made should start coming back in February 2011. While microfunds/microloans/microcredit/microfinance is/are not perfect (and I’m sure there is opportunity for corruption), I think it is a charity model worth supporting, and am hoping to be able to continue to do so in the future.

Kudos to Kiva for making it so easy for average people to participate in microfinance!