Microlending with a heart

So I found out about microlending and have signed up with prosper.com to lend money to people in increments of $50. So far I’ve just gotten as far as registering with the site (a somewhat complex process) and transferring $100 that I’ll lend out to two people once I pick two worthy loans.

I pointed Em to Prosper.com and she then pointed me to an article entitled Microlending: An Anti-Poverty Success Story and then to www.kiva.org where you can loan money (no interest…this isn’t a money-maker) to someone in the developing world via credit card or PayPal.

You can go to Kiva’s website and lend to someone in the developing world who needs a loan for their business – like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan. When the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back to re-loan or withdraw.

I just made a $25 loan to Susan Wairimu in Kenya to help grow her hair salon business in the town of Ruai in the outskirts of Nairobi. Her total loan request of $475.00 is apparently enough money in that part of the world to substantially boost her business by allowing her to purchase a blow-dryer, hair dryer, steamer, and various chemicals.

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