You have probably heard of the Chinese proverb that says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” and it is rather sound and rational. If we simply gave people who are in unfortunate circumstances help in terms of material things, we are probably just helping them temporarily because these tangible items doesn’t really last forever. After these items are depleted, most of the time they unfortunately go back to their previous plight and the cycle goes on and on. However if we do help them by providing them with a means to actually stand on their own after, we achieve the purpose of helping them become self-sustained for a lifetime. One might say that is is a huge undertaking and quite hard to so given the geographical differences we have from each other but with Kiva.org taking the step to bring us closer to those in need, it doesn’t seem such a hard feat.

We can’t alleviate poverty by simply giving donations to people. We can alleviate poverty by giving people sustainable jobs and businesses so they in turn can help their fellowmen by giving them a source of income by employing them. In Kiva.org, you are able to help entrepreneurs in developing countries by lending money to their businesses. Over time, they repay back the loans you loaned them and you are free to either withdraw the funds, re-lend them to other entrepreneurs or donate it to Kiva.org to help facilitate their operating costs. By lending money to these entrepreneurs you are helping them help themselves. They are able to break free from poverty because they are not burdened by interest rates that balloon into high amounts each year, thus they are able to grow their businesses. Loan interest rates are usually the source of even more business going down in developing countries because it is hard for small businesses to stay afloat if they always incur debts to fund their businesses. Free from these loan interest rates, these entrepreneurs are able to maximize the funds they are able to borrow and focus their thoughts in growing their businesses.

You can learn more about Kiva.org by visiting their website. They have many informational pages in there website and you can find links to press news about them in their Kiva Press Center. There is also a Kiva.org discussion group over at Kiva Friends. Please do check them out if you are interested to know more.

Lastly, if you are a member of the following social networks and you are interested to link to Kiva so your friends can find out about them, go check these groups out:

LinkedIn: Kiva Group
Facebook: Kiva.org - Micro Loans that Change Lives
Friendster: Kiva Profile
Yahoo!: Kiva Yahoo! Group
MySpace: Kiva profile
Squidoo: Kiva Squidoo page

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