DIY foreign aid
Five years of microlending in less than five minutes (video)
Check out what over five years of Kiva microlending looks like:
The video was put together by Kiva’s staff, who cleverly termed it “Intercontinental Ballistic Finance.” It’s pretty neat to see how microfinance can cross geographical and political borders to connect far-flung parts of the globe.
As time passes, you see that more and more parts of the world join in the lending game. And it’s not just the Western world; loans come from cities all over, including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai. You can also see through the nifty color-coding system that the types of loans come in waves: the screen flashes blue, red, and sometimes it’s a multicolored hodgepodge.
Kiva Microfunds is an American non-profit organization that allows anyone to make microloans to entrepreneurs around the world. The loans are then repaid over time. Since its launch in 2005, Kiva has loaned $241,348,975 to 625,153 people in 60 countries, and its repayment rate is 98.86 percent, and The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof included the organization in a 2010 list of the best ways that individuals can make a difference in the world.
Margo Conner is a senior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, majoring in international affairs. Read her other contributions to Global Envision.
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