I feel like a million bucks...and it cost me $50

After reading about and understanding what Kiva.org does...I've just made a loan of $50 to Joseph Okia.
Please click on his name for a link to his business profile and what he's trying to accomplish.

Joseph is caring for his deceased sister's two kids, and trying to grow his barber shop and open a women's beauty salon in Mbale Uganda. 

Kiva has such a smooth process and it took me about 60 seconds to execute my loan.  At the publishing time of this post, Joseph needs about $625 more to reach his goal of $800.  Can you believe that $800 can help revolutionize a struggling father's life!  And, you're not just donating money and hoping that an agency buys him food and clothes...you're actually helping him to create and grow a thriving business that will hopefully lift he and his family out of their current state and into prosperity.  There is a FULL intention to pay the loan back.  I will likely just redistribute the money once repaid, but this concept is exactly what my "inner giver" is looking for.  Give a man a fish and he eats once...teach a man to fish...and he'll eat for life.  I feel like I just bought Joseph a fishing rod, reel, some Berkley trilene, and a big ol' tackle box full of spinner bates and rubber worms.

I'm very excited about this organization and will likely invest more as we go along.

Here's my Kiva Lender Profile.

Comments

[Tim]

Hi Doug,

Thank you for your post on Kiva. You've demonstrated to your readers that one does not need to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner to make a difference. And thank you for being an example by, literally, helping a man to fish for life. We are extremely excited about our new social networking functionality, allowing loaners like yourself to publicly display your profile, thus enabling, for example, your business partner to see where the individual loans are coming from.

We were recently highlighted in a PBS Frontline documentary. We are completely humbled by the response that has been generated. It is truly showing human compassion at its finest! Please encourage your readers to keep trying to get through. We have over 300 businesses that are ready to be partnered with.

Thank you for caring!

Regards,

Tim (volunteer with Kiva.org)