Microlending

A while back I was intrigued and excited when someone sent me a link to Kiva. Its a company that basically works to connect people who want to give aid to individuals in developing countries without just providing a handout. One of a handful of companies dedicated to microlending, its been fun to watch two of my loans slowly being repaid on time and knowing that its a way I can still make a slight difference in the developing world (my past experiences lend me to donating to women in West Africa). I was quite excited to receive a gift certificate (thanks Ben!) for Christmas that would allow me to make four more small loans. When I checked back to the Kiva site this evening to see if anything new was up I was shocked to find that there is nothing, NOTHING, left of their projects to fund. Apparently Kiva has been getting quite a bit of publicity and there has been so much traffic to the site that individual loaners have managed to meet the requests of every loan they had posted. That's a pretty cool testimony to the number of people that are interested in trying to help in such a way as to enable change. I just hope that the increased availability of funding doesn't change their methods of ensuring that loans are going to people in developing countries who really are planning on paying them back. I have a feeling that it is going to give them an interesting line to walk in the near future. I am quite pleased by this growth in microlending, especially as it is a force that I do believe can bring positive change to communities in developing countries.