Meet Gregorio Castillo! We were introduced to him through an exciting web site that lets you "sponsor a business" in an effort to reduce poverty in our world. Along with 12 other Kiva supporters, Gregorio will be able to buy a cow to restart his dairy and fuel his business as a farmer.
The interesting thing about Kiva is that the loans are paid back over time...so you actually get your money back...it is not a hand out, but a leg up. Gregorio is set to pay his loan back in 12 months. What we found appealing about him was that our $25 loan was the last bit of money he needed to start the process. We can even check back in on Kiva.org to see how he is doing.
As small business owners ourselves, this really intrigued us because it is not a donation or a handout, but a loan to a fellow entrepreneur. Click on the loan cycle image below to see how it works.
- See a cool video about Kiva, "D.I.Y. Foreign Aid" on nytimes.com
- Learn more about Kiva on Treehugger.com
- Visit the Kiva Web Site for yourself
No comments:
Post a Comment