Deliver Us From Swedish Furniture

Kiva.org - Better than Charity

I have to admit I am not a big fan of most large charities. They have their role in large scale catastrophies, but in general they have problems with wasteage and the way many operate is less ‘teach a man to fish’ and far more ‘give a man a fish’ so a reliance culture ensues. OK, this is a bit harsh and probably far less true than it used to be, but recently I have found the idea of micro-finance more interesting.

The idea behind this is that you lend, through an intermediary, to a person or small company in the developing world for a specific need they have that will allow them to better their situation. This can be a loan to buy stock, buy a new piece of equipment etc. This allows people to build up their business which means less reliance on outside help. On top of this you get a return on your money, which you simply loan back out to other businesses or take out of the system if you need it.

There are several people now doing this, but the one I have been using is Kiva. With this you can divide up your money among many people, thus if one fails you do not lose all your money, so it even has diversification built in - looking down the current list of people wanting money there are people from Peru to Azerbaijan, Carpenters to Photographers. Anyone would think this was actually a good investment, so you can pretend to be a Dragon while helping people help themselves….other cliches are available on request