June microfinance
Jun. 5th, 2008 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexagonTo my surprise, I had three Kiva loans fully pay me back last month. Intizar Sohbatov, Celia Cala and Anna Bezruk are back out of debt.
Three loans down means I got to make four new ones this month -- zowie! All of them are still raising funds, which is why I'm providing links; you can look at their businesses. By the time you look they may be funded, but still.
Carlos Alberto Rodriguez Cano in Nicaragua, good luck buying zinc for the roof of your house.
Agnes Mamboleo in Tanzania, a music store / salon is a rather brilliant idea.
Vicenta in Peru is running an internet hangout for the local youth... I wonder if the local parents totally hate her, or if they ask questions the kids look up on Wikipedia.
Hellen Bbabalanda & co is a group in Uganda trying to buy sewing machines, battery charging machines, grocery store stock and used clothing.
It's amazing the things that constitute business plans in the developing world. While cruising around looking for loans I liked, I saw several people running battery-charging businesses this time, which is the first time I remember seeing that. A lot of people are trying to build additions to houses this time as well; it must be the season. I should really be more open to funding those... face it, I had to borrow to pay for my home too, and my mortgage is proportionally bigger (a 30-year term!) than anything these people are asking for.
Along similar lines -- I just want to mention how much I respect my loan recipients. Most of them are running their own businesses, which takes imagination and chutzpah. And all of them have better ideas about what to do with $25 than I do. By making a loan I'm nodding and saying, yeah, that is a better idea than anything I have at the moment.
Microfinance and knitting never get old. :D
Three loans down means I got to make four new ones this month -- zowie! All of them are still raising funds, which is why I'm providing links; you can look at their businesses. By the time you look they may be funded, but still.
Carlos Alberto Rodriguez Cano in Nicaragua, good luck buying zinc for the roof of your house.
Agnes Mamboleo in Tanzania, a music store / salon is a rather brilliant idea.
Vicenta in Peru is running an internet hangout for the local youth... I wonder if the local parents totally hate her, or if they ask questions the kids look up on Wikipedia.
Hellen Bbabalanda & co is a group in Uganda trying to buy sewing machines, battery charging machines, grocery store stock and used clothing.
It's amazing the things that constitute business plans in the developing world. While cruising around looking for loans I liked, I saw several people running battery-charging businesses this time, which is the first time I remember seeing that. A lot of people are trying to build additions to houses this time as well; it must be the season. I should really be more open to funding those... face it, I had to borrow to pay for my home too, and my mortgage is proportionally bigger (a 30-year term!) than anything these people are asking for.
Along similar lines -- I just want to mention how much I respect my loan recipients. Most of them are running their own businesses, which takes imagination and chutzpah. And all of them have better ideas about what to do with $25 than I do. By making a loan I'm nodding and saying, yeah, that is a better idea than anything I have at the moment.
Microfinance and knitting never get old. :D
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-06 02:18 am (UTC)I don't think my LJ-ing has pulled anyone else into it though, alas.