My friend, Daniel, introduced me to Kiva, a microfinance charity where you loan a minimum of US$25 to someone in a developing country to develop or start up their business. They are obliged to return the money, and when the money is returned to you, you can loan it again to someone else. I thought it was something very meaningful to contribute to as these people are actually using your money to do something useful to better their lives and that of their families. Well, I donated also because it was time I chocked up some good karma points…I think I haven’t been doing enough good in this world!

You can view the profile of all borrowers and decide whom you want to lend money to. My principle is that I will only lend to women and for purposes such as starting a business or growing food to sell. Women, I think, will be more likely to make better use of the money and not squander it away as they will be more committed to feeding their children. I also prefer to lend to a group as it makes every individual in the group more accountable for the money when there are others who have a stake in it as well. I won’t lend to those who say they want the money for entertainment (e.g. a billiard table – yes, I’ve seen that) or personal stuff like a gold bangle for her daughter. Sorry, that doesn’t cut it for me.

First-time donors are also entitled to a free $25 trial, meaning you are given US$25 by an anonymous donor to donate to a borrower of your choice – the money returned doesn’t go back to you though. And if you feel this is a worthy cause that you want to contribute further to, you can fork out your own money to do so. I have made use of the free US$25 trial Daniel sent me and also forked out US$25 on my own to donate to two groups. If you’d like a free US$25 trial to donate to Kiva, please drop me a note and I’ll email you an invite. Right now the number of people I’ve invited stands at ‘0’, please help me to change that!!!