It’s the first day of the month and I have just made my monthly loan to an entrepreneur at kiva.org. I have eight loans in repayment at the moment; in the past year I have loaned money to people in Nigeria, Togo, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Peru, Uganda, Dominican Republic and Kenya. This is a way of helping people in developing countries expand their businesses–and sometimes their homes–and improve their lives. It’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up.

How it works:

1. entrepreneurs seeking loans are featured at kiva.org
2. each entrepreneur works with a field partner, which disburses the loan and provides updates to lenders; field partners also handle payment collecting and may offer training to entrepreneurs
3. all loans are given in $25 increments; your money is pooled with that of other lenders from all over the world to help entrepreneurs
4. each month, your portion of a loan is credited to your account when the entrepreneur makes a payment
5. Kiva never collects any payment information from you; all payment and repayment is handled through PayPal

I would like to encourage everyone to consider lending through Kiva. It’s so easy to help someone have a better life!

Here is my lender profile: http://www.kiva.org/lender/bluenorma