I’ve recently started loaning money to third world entrepreneurs on a microfinancing website called Kiva. I think it’s a pretty cool way to contribute to the under-privileged in the developing world. It’s not a handout so it comes back down to the basic principles of teaching a man how to fish. Sometimes I wonder if traditional charitable contributions to the third world do more harm than good, such as turning a nation’s peoples into beggars. I think microfinance is a way to combat that while providing encouragement, & exhibiting generosity, but at the same time providing a real world sense of responsibility.
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Kiva (www.kiva.org) is a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.
You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.
