WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009 - (Page 8)
Microfinance YOU TOO CAN BE BILL GATES Leveraging technology, Kiva.org takes microfinance to the next level by Erica Burman icrofinance. If you no different than that of their friends and the recipient. Here’s how it works: have spent time in the in Silicon Valley. And they noted how 1) Lenders browse profiles of developing world, chances easy it was to stay connected to friends entrepreneurs in need, and choose are you have at least a glancing and family in the U.S. via the Internet. someone to lend to. When they understanding of what it entails. Ideas swirled. Growing up, both lend, using PayPal or their credit You’re probably familiar with the had sponsored individual children cards, Kiva collects the funds and pioneering work of people like in developing countries. Why not then passes them along to one of its Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank, sponsor businesses? Why not use the microfinance partners worldwide. Bangladesh), Joseph Blatchford power of the Internet to tell these 2) Kiva’s microfinance partners (ACCION, Venezuela), John Hatch compelling stories and connect these distribute the loan funds to the selected (FINCA, Bolivia) and others. What African entrepreneurs to people back entrepreneur. Often, their partners also more, you might ask, is there to know home with the means to lend small provide training and other assistance to beyond the basic model? Where is amounts? maximize the entrepreneur’s chances of there room for further innovation? Kiva was born. success. The answer can be summed up in Kiva.org marries technology and 3) Over time, the entrepreneurs one word: connection. While many microfinance to create something repay their loans. Repayment and in the development community new—a transparent, data-rich, costother updates are posted on Kiva have long recognized the power of effective platform that encourages a and e-mailed to lenders who wish to microfinance, spreading the message personal connection between the lender receive them. to a wider audience has been a challenge. In 2004, Jessica Jackley was in East Africa, conducting impact evaluation surveys for the Village Enterprise Fund. A year earlier, while working at Stanford University, she heard Mohammad Yunus give a lecture and was inspired. Her husband Matt Flannery, a Stanford graduate with a background in the software industry, joined her, filming interviews with small business entrepreneurs. Together they saw first hand the impact that a small grant of $100 or $150 could have. They were struck by the Africans’ Sophea Chum, 23, and her husband live on an island in the Mekong River about fifteen kilometers from entrepreneurial spirit— Phnom Penh. She has been a silk weaver for five years. Summer 2009 M John Briggs
http://www.Kiva.org
http://www.Kiva.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
Contents
More Peace Corps Campaign: Better and Bolder!
Africa Rural Connect
Readers Write
You Too Can Be Bill Gates
Taking Peace Corps Back into the Field
Come for the Information, Stay for the Dancing
A “Green” Community Rising
Microfinance Pioneer Receives 2009 Shriver Award
The Colombia Project
A Voice for the Unheard
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Microfinance Podcasts
Selected Microfinance Resources
Bicycle! Bamenda! Orange!
Luck and Fame
A Step in the Right Direction
Bringing What She Loves
Letter from Botswana: First Tongues of the Kalahari
Letter from Tanzania: Homo Sapien in Africa
In the Beginning (There Was John)
The Peace Corps Community Making a Difference
Community News
Advertiser Index
WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
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