Kiva is More than I Thought

Several months ago, a friend gave me a present. She gave me a $25 credit with a nonprofit organization called Kiva.

I'd heard of Kiva and knew it was an organization that specialized in micro finance. It gave small loans to everyday people in developing countries so they could pursue their small business ideas.

I wasn't too sure how the whole thing worked, however, so I was excited to give it a whirl.

It was kind of like an online dating service. You can choose a region of the world or country that you're interested in and a bunch of profiles pop up. Each profile tells the story of an individual or small group, what he/she/they want to do, and how much money they need to do it.

You decide who you want to support and your money will go toward completing that person's goal. Once enough people have agreed to support them, then they get their loan.

I picked a group of women in Vietnam who were trying to get a small livestock operation started. They needed money to buy their first few chickens, pigs and cattle.

I felt good about the process and it was fun to have a say in who got my money, but what I didn't realize is that I would get my money back!

A few days ago, I got an email from Kiva telling me that my loan had been repaid and I once again had a $25 credit to dool out to someone else.

Too cool! I hadn't expected that my money would come back. It makes sense. It was a loan, after all, and a loan is supposed to be repaid. But I hadn't expected that the money would come back to me, that I would get to use it again. I guess I thought it would go back to Kiva, to the organization, for administrative costs or something.

I've just finished "shopping" for my second Kiva loan. This time I chose a 60-ish man and his wife in Paraguay who are trying to renovate the front room of their house and turn it into a laundry service.

Having used many of these businesses in the course of my travels, I decided this sounded like a winning idea.

I'm excited to see how long it takes this couple to get their dream finished and their loan repaid so that I can give out a third loan!