Helping others through the Net

What often keeps us from helping others is that we simply don’t know how. At least not without packing our bags, relocating to a remote rural community and starting a new career as part of an NGO. Luckily, as it has for the past decade, the Internet now offers us an accessible solution.

KIVA is another brilliant idea brought to us by the Internet, previously responsible for changing our lives through Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Now with KIVA, it’s promising to change the lives even of those who’ve never had the privilege of using it. Its website allows anyone equipped with a credit card and an Internet connection to lend money to microentrepreneurs (as KIVA terms them) such as farmers, tricycle drivers and sari-sari store owners in the Philippines or through partner microfinance institutions in more than 50 other countries on five continents applying the adage that, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime on a global scale. And as loans are repaid in as little as six months, KIVA proves that helping others doesn’t need to cost a thing.

You can browse www.kiva.org as accessibly as you would eBay. Each prospective borrower has their own page with information including the borrower’s background and what he or she plans to do with the loan. This is arranged by an accredited microfinance institution, which serves as your intermediary on the ground. Through them, you can choose to lend to microentrepreneurs halfway around the world in the comfort of your own living room, office, or wherever the allure of free Wi-Fi takes you.

There lies the big, red exclamation mark that understandably hangs atop all prospective KIVA lenders’ heads. How are you certain that your loan will be repaid? An online service dedicated to giving money to strangers on the Internet is understandably one of the most absurd ideas of the decade. But the Internet has a record for making absurd ideas work in practice. Consider Wikipedia, everyone’s favorite online encyclopedia that absolutely anyone can edit. Today its collection of articles is 14 million and growing. KIVA, likewise, has figures that have left the skeptics speechless. Out of the more than $100 million in loans disbursed via KIVA so far, 98.5 percent has been repaid. And the rates vary based on the “credit rating” of the different partner organizations. Some have never defaulted on a single loan, such as the Nueva Ecijah-based group Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI), which has financed more than 3,000 microentrepreneurs. Among them was a tricycle driver in need of money for repair, a woman starting a sari-sari store and yet another one starting a canteen. One hundred percent of the money loaned to Alalay sa Kaunlaran has been repaid on time. So at this rate, and in this economy, your money is safer with them than with a struggling bank.

I write this as one of KIVA’s satisfied lenders. This July, skeptical as I was, I tried KIVA out by contributing the minimum amount that its website allows, a $25 loan to a woman named Flordeliza in Cauayan, Isabela. Her profile painted the picture of a mother of four whose husband is currently serving as a soldier. She was limited by an income of P5,000 a month, but a loan from KIVA was about to change her life forever. Together with one lender in Dubai and another in Oklahoma, she received a total of $425 to help expand her business selling rice. Six months later, every cent was repaid and journal entries provided by KIVA’s field partner indicate how the support had improved Flordeliza’s fortunes in time for Christmas.

That leads us to the same question asked by Bob Geldof and his ensemble of charitable rock stars in 1984 perplexed by the poverty of their time — “Do they know it’s Christmas?” With the holiday season winding down, we can still make sure that they do. KIVA’s ever-expanding selection of microfinance partner organizations now includes eight from the Philippines, more than any other country in Asia. The outpouring of selflessness that followed in the wake of typhoon Ondoy has shown that the problem is no longer finding people who want to make the world a better place, but rather finding accessible ways to do so. Working completely through your web browser, KIVA provides a ridiculously easy way to fight poverty. Another part of its appeal may very well be proving that, as loans are repaid, helping others doesn’t have to cost a thing. So in this new decade, it no longer has to be hard to make a difference. A credit card and a working Internet connection is all you need to help others help themselves.

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Please do consider loaning to KIVA at www.kiva.org. All you need is a credit card and an Internet connection (setting up a Paypal account also helps). If you’re still looking for a different, meaningful, belated Christmas gift, KIVA also offers gift certificates online. There are also several ways to put KIVA’s innovative service to use. Introduce it to the classroom and use it as a learning tool to connect you with the lives of others far away, or bring it to your church and make it a reliable way for the community to give back.

For more information, refer to its website, along with the testimonials of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and former US President Bill Clinton who have both championed its work. For more information on what microfinance is, search Google for Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, whose work in the grassroots of Bangladesh has helped most of his almost 50 million borrowers escape from poverty and has inspired KIVA’s founders to offer the same service this non-profit online.

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For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at levistel@gmail.com.