As a part of our wedding gift, my good friend Jam gave Rand and me a gift certificate for Kiva. So what’s Kiva? Here’s some info from their about page:
Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.
The initial gift allowed us to make two loans: over time, those loans have been (mostly) paid back. Today, I went to Kiva and used a portion of our balance to make a new loan and give a small donation to Kiva to cover operating costs.
I think Kiva is a really cool organization, and I encourage you to check them out!
Love your blog, and I have been a supporter of Kiva, too (16 loans over the past few years). Don’t know whether you saw this article, though, from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/global/09kiva.html. Sadly, Kiva’s person-to-person lending is a myth, and although I believe their intentions are admirable, I feel hoodwinked.