Kiva Kraziness

I’ve been doing microloans with Kiva for the last 6 months or so. Today, my first loan was repaid by my man Samiboy - a baker in Tajikistan. I’ve been adding monthly contributions, but now that those loans are coming back to me it is kind of like a philanthropic compound interest (no interest is charged to the loaners of course). It’s pretty neat to see things coming together as I try to work toward a triple bottom line. More on that soon.

Interestingly, since Oprah mentioned the service on her show they have a massive shortage of businesses in need in their system. It’s a good problem to have, though it’s a shame that they can’t fully take advantage of the surge in publicity.

I was checking out Zopa today - a peer to peer lending network more geared towards developed world lenders and loaners. The idea is to cut out the banks, allow people in need to get reasonable rates on loans without draconian repayment terms, and for lenders to make decent interest on their surplus cash while doing it in a positive, human way. Distributed citizen banking on a mass scale. Amazing.