I have been fascinated by the idea of microcredit since I first heard about it a year or two ago. For those of you who don’t know. Microcredit institutions make teeny tiny loans to people (mostly women) in developing countries so that they can start or expand a business or make some other life altering change, like buying a vehicle or home. The person pays back the loan with interest according to their ability to pay. One of the pioneers of the idea, Muhammad Yunus, the president of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Article here.
So, I heard about this non-profit on NPR. It’s called Kiva. They are set up to let people fund microcredit projects around the world in increments of $25.00. I signed up and will start putting money into it as soon as my funds move into PayPal (you use PayPal for it, another great idea). I’m starting out with $50, but if this goes well I’m probably going to add $25.00 or so every pay period. The loans are interest bearing, so there is a little return on your investment, but no one’s going to get rich doing this. Anyway, I encourage folks to check it out. I’ll try to update on my investments if anything interesting happens.
Sparkly Things 