Kiva: join the Somersoft team

Yes, you choose exactly who you want to lend to. You can filter borrowers by country, sector (agricultural vs retail etc), gender, conflict zones, etc. to help you choose.

Welcome to the team, nomadic and Yann!

 

Yes you scroll through those seeking loans and click on who you want to lend too. They have a photo (usually) and a brief outline of what they will do with the money. Some are individuals, some are groups. I just read until one feels right to me. You get an email when money has been repaid so you can lend again. It's a great initiative and if you want it can be just a one off that keeps giving. I like to add more each year though.

 

Yep, anyone you like. My aim, like D.T. is to lend to someone in every country.

 

Info for others wanting to lend: Kiva request USD so they will convert your money to USD before lending. I think there's only 2 choices to pay them, Paypal and credit card? The x-rate they offered through Paypal was a ****** 71 cents.

 

Just registered on Kiva and join the "Fan of SS" Team. Didn't know about Kiva before reading about it on PC a couple of hours ago.
I like the fact that you really know who you are helping and what for.

 

Welcome to the team.

 

101 members now!
Nice to see people giving others the chance to improve their own circumstances.

 

Just registered and given my first 2 lends.

 

Woop! Count me in.

 

I just joined too

 

Received my September repayment today and it was enough to re-dish out to originate an additional 3 loans

 

Hey I just had a loan refunded and I thought - what if we all chipped into the same loan at various points? That way it would reach its target quicker? Any thoughts...

 

Decided to join after watching One Dollar a Day documentary in Netflix
Did my first lending. It's nothing much but hopefully will improve overtime.

 

Originated another 3 loans today using none of my own money - just repayments that had come back. It's the gift that keeps on giving, in a way

 

The funding isn't really reliant on reaching it's goal BTW - it's just a gimmick to give people warm and fuzzies. Any via projects are pre-funded through a commercial run micro finance lender.

 

Oh thats good to know, I was worried about all those who don't quite make quota not getting funded!

 

Yup, that's the practical thing in the end. Last thing you don't want is a great viable project not making it to funding because it was 5% short or so.

 

I don't think that's right. I lent to someone that only had 1 day to go and got a message asking if I still wanted to lend as the person may not reach their requested amount, and that the money would be refunded back to me. That was latst year. Maybe it's changed? I've not had money refunded though, when I've chosen short time finish times. I usually only pick ones that are close to their target now, if time is short.

 

Kiva Is Not Quite What It Seems

This helps explain the process quite well. Nothing wrong with what they're doing - it's quite pragmatic and has the interests of those receiving the funding at heart.

Much the same with child sponsorship - most of it in reality is fabricated or loosely tied to the truth. When it initially indeed was tied to individual children it has disastrous results. (children being killed as they were receiving significant funding, whilst the rest of the village suffered etc)

 

Yes, I've actually had money refunded for this reason - they didn't reach target and so didn't proceed. I originated a different loan with those proceeds.

As Corey says, there's likely an intermediate process where they fund the person and then we fund them.

Either way its a good cause and I'm happy to be supporting it.