My brother introduced me to one of the coolest financial ideas I've ever seen. Kiva is a company that provides microloans to the world's poor, to help them start businesses or other projects. This increases local productivity, provides lasting aid, and dignifies the poor. What a great idea! You can give gift cards to people (like my brother did to me) which they can loan to the poor. The amount is repaid in cash (and the recipient of the giftcard gets their amount in cash, but not before helping the poor), or it can be reloaned to another group.
Try it!!
We donate to an organization very similar to this. It loans to people predominantly in Haiti and you can actually track your money and see what is being done with the donation. Love this. Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteOne of my childen gave me a Kiva gift card for Christmas. I chose a group with a Catholic sort of name. The enitre loan (my contribution is about 1% of the total amount) will enable a woman to buy ingredients to make and sell fresh bread in her neighborhood. The Kiva card is a wonderful present even if the loan is never repaid. Thank you for promoting this ingenious way to help people work productively for the benefit of their families and community. It's a beautiful thing in keeping with Rerum Novarum and other Church teachings about social justice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments! Rerum Novarum is amazing; what struck me when I read it at TAC was the providence of the Church, how her teachings develop and anticipate the needs of the world.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad to hear (from Katie) that there are other organizations like it.