Six hundred dollars may just seem like a semester’s worth of textbooks to the average college student, but that kind of cash takes on new meaning when placed in the care of Kiva, a microlending nonprofit organization.
Kiva goes to Third World countries and finds deserving individuals with small business plans and puts them and their story on the Kiva Web site where anyone can lend some of the needed capital.
Looking at a person who can take the money I need for just one semester of college and turn it into a grocery store is humbling.
Most of the people have children. Many of the loan recipients from sub-Saharan Africa are caring not only for their own children, but the children of their family members who have succumbed to AIDS.
They take $600 and make peanut butter or bricks, feed their families, and pay back the loan.
It is easy to forget my New Year’s resolution to be more positive when every form I fill out for financial aid yields nothing but more forms.
But a forced semester off from my already extended and meandering college education is insignificant considering that most people are on a permanent hiatus from education.
Nobel Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus helped me to put things in perspective.
According to the Nobel Foundation, Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were the recipients of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering an economic system in which small, interest free loans are extended to people who would be unable to get a loan through a traditional bank.
Kiva.org is a way for anyone to become a participant in microlending. The strange thing about it is, despite my “dire circumstances,” even I can afford to become a lender through Kiva.
Microfinance and Kiva in particular, are redefining the world of charitable donations.
Many people donate money to various organizations each week. The donation may be to a church, shelter, soup kitchen or a “starving child on TV” organization.
The thing that most of these have in common is once the money is given, there is no accountability. The old adage of “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” is fitting for the way that Kiva operates.
The recipients of loans use the money to grow or start a business, then pay you back.
There is the risk that the beneficiary may default, but Kiva reports that 96 percent of loans are fully repaid. The beauty of Kiva is that when you receive your initial investment back, you can just re-lend.
According to the Estimated Cost and Enrollment Information on OSU’s Student Self-Service Web site, the approximated cost of the 2007-2008 school year for a part time student is $18,370.
According to Kiva, $2,400 can buy Grace Rwenga of Uganda a refrigerator for her fruit vending business, which will increase her profits and allow her to open another business.
Grace is asking people to help her. I am asking the government to help me. Chances are we will both get what we’re asking for.
But I’ve already gotten something even better; I’m back on track with my New Year’s resolution.
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