Hey gang, before we break for the summer I want to talk to you about a website/project that I have been meaning to profile for a long time. I am talking about KIVA (http://www.kiva.org/). It is social networking applied to microcredit. You go to their website you pick a project, you loan a small sum to someone in a developing country and make a WORLD of a difference in their lives. It is microcredit with a face. You know the person you lend the money to, you know what they’re going to use the money for, it is a small sum of money for you but a fortune to them and if you don’t get your money back (which hasn’t happened so far) it is no big loss.
For the price of a few lattes (that won’t go to your waistline) you can make a big difference in a person’s life and in a community.
If you want to find out more about it, check this website where you’ll get all the information you need :
(http://video.on.nytimes.com/index.jsp?ens&rdm=92538.90892523128).
Muhammad Yunus the father of microcredit (lending small amounts of money to poor people with whom banks won’t do business) was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html). To find out more about him, click on this link: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-lecture-en.html.
Both Yunus and the people behind Kiva are an inspiration to all of us.
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