I just loaned $25 to a woman named Oyunjargal Luvsanpurev in Mongolia through my kiva.org account. I didn’t have to pay anything new since this was money already in my kiva account. I have been a kiva.org member for almost two years now and this is my 13th $25 loan. I have loaned to men and women in 11 different countries around the world. Sometimes I will spend $25 plus the $3 or so operating costs to make a loan. Other times I have balance in the account because my old loans have been repaid. I have never had anyone default on my loans so far so I get to use the money again and again to make these microfinance business loans, except for that separate “operating costs” fee which is around $3. If you want to make a loan to this woman too, a clothing designer who will use the money to buy a sewing machine for her business, you can follow this link. Though she is asking for over a thousand US dollars, the loan will probably be fully funded within 24 hours. It’s really amazing to see all these people from around the world helping others through kiva. Oyunjargal is a widow and mother of two children. I love learning details about the people I am helping, and loooooove seeing their photo. I always am happy to see that they are gradually paying back their loan, which to me means that their business is succeeding.
I still have enough in my kiva account to make another loan, but I will wait until this Saturday and have my 10 year old “Little Sister” (through Big Brothers Big Sisters) help me to choose who gets the loan. She has helped me once before, and it was actually hard for her to imagine that there were people out there who needed money more than her family. When searching for a loan to fund on kiva.org you can specify if you want the loan to go to an individual or a collective group, and if you choose individual, a male or a female. You get to browse through the photos, read the people’s stories, etc. I’m a big fan!