Paul Monaco .org

As a Buddhist I believe in making good cause to receive great benefit.  Kiva is an organization that helps you do that in a really easy way.

Many entreprenuers in developing or poverty stricken areas have a great deal of difficulty securing capital to reinvest into their businesses to foster growth.  Sometimes it’s due to a lack of established credit, other times the amount needed is so low that large financial institutions don’t find this a profitable venture.

In May 2007 I used Kiva to help out Maria Elena Cabral Guerrerawith a small loan to help her purchase inventory for her shoe sales business.  You can imagine how great this made me feel.  Though I’m generally a very charitable person, I suffer from being extremely skeptical of charitable organizations and even more skeptical of the people who seek assistance.  With Kiva, people who receive funds are fully expected to pay it back and they work hard to do so.. which is indicated by their 95% re-payment rate. 

Now that Maria has payed back her loan, the funds are marked as available.  In the next few days I’ll make another post and share with you how I re-invested and may actually take on an additional business to support.  What better way is there to kick off the Year Of Capable People and Development!