kiva believer

I hate to say it but I am a bit cynical about traditional charities and their donation tactics. I know charities do good works but I can't help paying attention when I read an article about how this charity spends more than half the money on administration costs, or that charity outsources fund-raising to a company which pays sales bonuses to charity collectors. To be fair it might be the only way the massive charities can manage to collect the large amounts of funding they need to operate, but I just can't help think of that when I see a pushy Red Cross sales person on the street or see an advertisement for Oxfam.

That is why I was so impressed yesterday when I found out about a new organisation called Kiva which links tiny business entrepreneurs in third world countries to people willing to loan them very small amounts of money to help them start a business which can help them become self sufficient. The website features stories of all sorts of people including African seamstresses and Asian farmers who need as little as $100 to get their idea off the ground, and potential donors are able to decide which projects they want to assist with and within a year have the money returned to them in full.

Brilliant!