Category: Social Action

  • Change the World, Today

    This morning my family invested in a small beauty shop in Nicaragua. The best part about our investment in Sheyla is that we aren’t expected a return on our investment. All we hope to get is the principal with no interest.

    Thanks to Kiva, our family can partner with Sheyla or thousands of small business owners in developing countries like hers. (Cambodia, Togo, Sudan, Lebanon, and many more.) Kiva offers “micro-loans” to unqualified entrepreneurs seeking to help them help themselves.

    We’re not talking about billions of dollars either. In Shelya’s case she just needs $675 so she can add onto her house, so she can grow her beauty shop while taking care of her two young children.

    Kiva is a loan. This means that you will get your money back in about a year. We’ve done it and can attest to it. We got our money back! Of course, we just loan it right back to someone else…. but that isn’t the point. The point is that you can invest your $100 or $500 into a small business and be reasonably certain that money will come back to you. It’s a help out and not a hand out. And I dig that.

  • Invisible no more

    Learn more about Invisible Children

    HT to Patti

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  • Helping the Poor, Practically

    Kiva
    For a few weeks I have been drawn to a little website called kiva.org. Kiva offer microcredit to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

    How does it work?
    It’s really quite simple. You create an account, you chose someone you’d like to loan money to, and you pay with PayPal. 100% of the money goes to the person who then repays the money to you on a pre-determined schedule.

    Sound shady?
    When it comes to our money, we are so suspicious aren’t we? 
    Well, microlender Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

    Adam, what are you saying?
    Well, I read enough… tonight I invested in a small business in Samoa. The "why" is really simple. Rather than just giving someone a handout… why not help them get started in something that can secure their future?
    We made a simple, small investment in order to help someone out.

    It’s another one of my many experiments. I am keeping an eye on the benefits of this as I can easily see something practical like Kiva becoming a practical part of Light Force or even YMX.