Feb 19 2009
Microlending Site Enables Charity with Actual Beneficial Results
Kiva.org, a microlending site, gives individuals the ability to lend directly to entrepreneurs in poor countries who need small amounts of money to purchase equipment for their businesses. The site cooperates with a variety of field partners in other countries and gives lenders the option to pick the entrepreneurs to whom they entrust their money. Each field partner has its own rating, ranging from one to five stars and indicative of the riskiness of the loan. Thus, individuals can select the projects they give to based on their own risk tolerance. The Internet permits for a versatile, dynamic system of feedback regarding which loans actually got repaid and therefore contributed to actual profitable enterprises.
If you are ever in a charitable mood, go to Kiva.org and other sites like it instead of giving your money to huge multinational aid agencies – where you have no verification regarding exactly how and where your money will be spent and whether it will have any real impact. Charity can work, but only if there is a direct, visible link and strong accountability between lenders and borrowers.
Sincerely,
Gennady Stolyarov II
