Fund 43 microloans through Kiva.org

I’ve been reading lots against Kiva lately. I’ve even read that would be the ultimate way we rich part of world devised in order to ueber exploit poverty. And I’m starting to believe it to be quite true actually. It’s highly unethical to ask for a interest rate that varies between 30% and 55%.

Some of you might be interested in reading more about it:
http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/beyond-good-intentions/archive/2009/05/25/micro-lending

I don’t think I want to further support such a shame, but I’m still trying to understand if I’ve been missing something.

to strong women again
my lender page is a great sight now

every time I look at it I feel that I cannot fail be strong myself, when so many poor strong women are in front of me.

to a young woman
who grows piglets
in Cambodia

I was reminded of the pig scene
in Operation petticoat
where Tony curtis steers a pig
as if it was a wheelbarrow
(how shallow of me, I know!)

to a woman
in Tanzania
to sell alcohol

I see why nobody wanted to loan to her
but who am I to judge?
so I loaned
and hope for the better

Mujeres Valientes in Paraguay

(I knew the last days in the year still had some good surprise for me! waiting for more!)

Porfiria owns a bus

isn’t that poetic and powerful?

I love the name Porfiria
it sounds a very dangerous woman

Perù – Juana is 59 years old; she is separated from her husband and lives with her son, Dante…

I wonder, is Dante a common name in Perù?
To me it was a sign that I had to lend to his mother,
who expresses such strength and determination in her photo.

I really don’t know here
who is helping who
all these great examples of strong women in my Kiva loan page
give me hope

I like that now you don’t have to wait for the full repayment before lending the same money again!

What I don’t like is the fact that I keep looking for the possibility to lend money to women for educational programmes and I never find any. According to a lot of sources (UNO, World Bank, etc), researches show that the quickest and best way to improve the general condition of poor countries would be to invest in education programmes for women: this would help with hygene and children mortality as well.
Why people at Kiva don’t fund these programmes?

to celebrate the happy completion of my last paper
goes out to Silvia

I know I am partial and perhaps unfair,
but I don’t manage to lend to men
women entrepreneurs seem so much more worth a loan
^{shouldn’t love my prejudices so much, I know}

to a lady from Nicaragua
and is actually a reloan
after I got the money back
from Corina Francisca Cortez from Nicaragua.
This third loan is to celebrate and spread happiness after I got the peer reviewers’ positive oracle.