Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- and love | Video on TED.com

When I heard this talk, it resonated with the thoughts and feelings I've had regarding that big, amorphous group, the poor, and what I personally could do about it. This young woman wanted to help and founded a wonderful internet organization, Kiva,  to provide microloans to those who need them to lift themselves out of poverty. It's an amazingly effective program that is now the 6th leading source of microloans. And it has a 98% repayment rate.

Check it out. You can join and loan (as little as $25.00) to whomever you choose individually or join a group and lend with them to multiply your power. Then you're paid back and can loan again. It's specific, it's personal, it works because each applicant decides for themselves what's best for them to do with the money in their area.

They have a Blogger loan group. They have a Woman to Woman loan group that specifies it's loans for women in the belief that aiding women and children is the best way to benefit a society. They have all kinds of loan groups. People across the globe get connected.

This is a brilliant idea! What do you think?


Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- and love | Video on TED.com


What is Kiva:

Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Kiva was born of the following beliefs:

• People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in a transparent, accountable way.
• The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity.
• By connecting people we can create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

Kiva promotes:

• Dignity:   Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships. Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.
• Accountability:   Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.
• Transparency:   The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans.