Wednesday, May 30, 2007

HUMANITARIAN HIGHLIGHT
This couldn't be a proper Porter Blog without some humanitarian project, right? So I have been looking into this organization called Kiva. The guy who started it just won the Nobel Peace Prize last year and I have heard a lot of great things about it. So I thought it might be a nice way to get involved globally. Maybe we could sponsor one person together or just individually. Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, we can provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty. They pay you back through time and then you can just reinvest it another project. You can e-mail back and forth and I think it will be way to interconnect us as a world family. Anway check out the site and let me know if you are interested. $25 is just giving up one trip to DI!
http://kiva.org

3 comments:

Althea said...

Great idea! I was just reading something about a guy who started a bank in India I think it was, for this exact purpose of giving loans to very poor people. He realized if people could start with even a very small amount it would make a huge difference in how they would be able to support their family. Thanks for the idea and info and I am definitely in.

Carrith said...

I'm in. I don't know about giving up a DI trip, but I am in.

Elizabeth Lee said...

Well since I don't even have a DI trip to give up I guess I will have to give up something like chocolate. That's probably $25 a month.