DU Kiva Team

[Catshrink]

I just visited our DU Kiva team page and found that we now have 20 members who have made 67 loans. That is pretty impressive.

For those of you who don't know.... Kiva is a microlending organization. Although most of their efforts are international, they are piloting a program to lend to American entrepreneurs.

http://www.kiva.org

http://www.kiva.org/team/democratic_underground

[niyad]

1. thank you so much for sharing this most useful information. Kiva is wonderful, and glad to know DU

has a part in it.

[Warpy]

2. I love Kiva

and have been lending for a couple of years now. Some of my clients are now delinquent on their loans, meaning the recession really is worldwide.

Still, the repayment record is shockingly good. Poor people are much better risks than the people banks like to lend money to.

I consider myself very lucky to have an income that has not suffered from the recession. Nothing makes me feel wealthy like spreading it around to the people who need it most.

[Catshrink]

4. I think Kiva is better than charity

because the funds go directly to the person or group. Even though the interest rates they charge the entrepreneurs seem high to us, they are far less than what local lenders charge.

[Warpy]

5. I think you need to do both

because some folks are so far down there's no way to get up without a helping hand.

[cali]

3. how cool.

in my community we have something like this on a very local level- the slow money movement which makes investments and loans in sustainable agriculture.