Have you heard of KIVA ?
I came across KIVA in 2010, I loved the concept as soon as I saw it....
Basically, people who had the financial ability to give a small amount of money to help people less fortunate than themselves, could leverage the power and reach of their donation by making it though KIVA and their in country partners, who would bundle the small amounts together to provide a micro loan to a person or group in a developing country to help them in their goals to help them out of poverty.
KIVA says
Micro loans combat poverty daily by making small loans to borrowers around the world. We believe in fair access to affordable capital for people to improve their own lives.
Often only a relatively small amount of money stands in the way of Kiva borrowers and their dreams. Whether it’s a Kenyan farmer who needs $500 in order to double her grain production, or a young Bolivian woman who lacks the $1,500 tuition for nursing school, Kiva lenders provide a hand up to these and countless other borrowers.
All you need to do is;
- Choose a borrower
- Browse hundreds of borrower profiles on KIVA and find a story that connects with you.
- Make a loan
- Click ‘Lend’ to send money via KIVA's Field Partners, who vet, distribute and administer each loan.
- Get repaid
- Receive updates as the borrowers you support succeed and repay their loans.
- Repeat!
When borrowers repay, that money is yours to keep, donate to KIVA or lend again to empower someone new.
Since joining I have paid US$78 of my own money into KIVA but this has been loaned and re-loaned 18 times...Now that's what I call leverage.,
I have helped with setting up Motorcycle Taxi services , Health care and a Pharmacy , Buying stock for a store or food stall, recycling, farming and more...
I have helped people to break the chains of poverty in over 12 countries.
Since being introduced to Bitcoin ,crypto-currencies and then Steemit over the past year ( and a bit), I have become aware of the massive problem of the billions of unbanked ( not that I'm a fan of banks), the lack of access to capital, the difficulty and cost in moving money over long distances, borders is holding many hundreds of millions of people in poverty.
I pledge that the US$ equivalent of the STEEM given as reward on this post will be paid to KIVA to add to my lending pool and multiply it many times over in the coming years.
If you'd like to help by becoming a lender yourself, please check out KIVA
If you already use KIVA, I would love to read your stories.
As much as I love KIVA ..
I wonder how blockchain tech could disrupt this concept, in a positive way, allowing capital and projects to come together..how would reputation ,repayments etc be handled...I would love to hear ideas and feed back on this too.
Thanks in advance for your Upvote, if you'd like to help support this fundraising project, please Re-Steem this post and Follow Me on Steemit
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50/50 post : I pledge that the US$ equivalent of the STEEM given as reward on this post will be paid to KIVA
I've been a Kiva member for a few years ago. I really like the feeling I get for being able to help those less fortunate, And the investment is very small $25 at a time.
Wonderful. Keep on helping people with KIVA
That money is working quickly! I had heard of Kiva; I'm glad to hear first-hand that it works well. Upvoted and resteemed.
The loans are in $25 increments, and the repayment time can be from 3 months to 2 years. Different loans have different repayment schedules and once you're built up $25 in your account you can lend it back out again. I've only had two loans with losses. One default and one currency loss but I have also had the opportunity to do a couple of matched loans where I put in $25 and it gets matched by a corporate donor.
Thanks for those details. Only one default sounds good.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to directly loan Steem to the folks that need it and by pass fiat currency?
It would, cell/mobile phones are now ubiquitous even in developing countries, these are now being used to provide remittance services via SMS, crypto like STEEM next?
sounds like a plan.
by-pass the banksters.
I find out about something new and cool every day on Steemit and this is a prime example. When someone pays back the load is there interest or the pay back the same amount the borrow?
I know. Isn't this Steemit thing just the best. Really is world changing.
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Thank you to everyone who gave this post an upvote and comment.
Unfortunately I don't think the almos $0.50 of STEEM is going to make much difference yet, so I think I'll start a series of posts showcasing some of the projects I've lent to through KIVA and try build the rewards up to $25.