Thread: This site loans American money but I did not see anyAmerican

revolutionary idea has made it possible for anyone to help people in Third World countries via the Internet—and it can be addictive! Visitors to Kiva(dot)org can read the story of someone who needs help starting a small business. For as little as $25, they can choose a loan to partially finance—and help lift someone out of poverty in the process. Kiva's thousands of success stories include a peanut butter stand in Uganda, carpet weavers in Afghanistan and a fruit vendor in Vietnam. www.kiva(dot)org Matt and Jessica Flannery were newlyweds working in East Africa when they came up with the idea for Kiva. According to Matt, $10 million in loans have been made through the organization—and 99.7 percent of the money has been repaid!

Matt says it takes about 1.5 days for the average entrepreneur to receive funding for a project through the website. "We use PayPal, who provides us free payment processing," he says. "People loan through PayPal through Kiva, and we wire that money directly to the field partner that gives it to the entrepreneur." Learn more about www.kiva(dot)org.

one thing about this kiva site it seems to help everyone but an American
I may be wrong but think about it- most of our jobs go over seas and our money is sent back to central America and we have people desperately looking for work right here in America what is wrong with these people http://www.kiva(dot)org/app.php?page=businesses&nocache=&pageID=3 why not help Americans who want to work such as some person in America that has lost there job with no fault of there own like outsourcing I understand that there are some good people but Dam this give give give - lets fix America first - I do not know what to think

Thanks for the post TEX,We seem to be the safety net/ATM of the world. I think we may see a day when the Americans in America need help(more than they do now). I am not sure however if anyone will help us out.As somehow the US seems to be to blame for everything.




Head 'em up,move 'em out Rawhide!

I wouldn't get upset over this - it's a pretty well run charity. It's a loan, not a handout. Besides it's personal money (not taxpayer funds). If someone wants to loan money their own money out it's their choice.

They were just on Oprah today and because of that they have a slight problem according to their site. Too many people who want to loan money, and too little people to loan the money to.

The ones on there from Latin America didn't appear to be that needy from what I saw before (a mexican guy who wanted to add a concrete overhang to the front of his house who commented that even with the air conditioning it still gets hot. If you can afford AC you don't need my money. Plus he wanted $1200 which is pretty high by mexican standards, he got funded though).

The whole point of it is that they are loans - not handouts, that enable people to borrow the capital necessary to create a sustainable source of income and therefore sustainable self supporting economies.

Over all Kiva.org seems to be an honest well run charity and if you loan money you are asked to donate additionally to Kiva but you know where every dollar is going. It's not like a scam charity such as the Red Cross.