Kiva - make a loan, change a life

As well as developing our own little farm, I've decided that I'd like to help other people to develop their own agricultural enterprises. One of the best ways to do this seems to be through a micro-loan to a Kiva partner.

The system of micro-loans strikes me as even better than a donation to charity - if all goes well, I'll get my money back, the borrower makes a profit and I can lend the capital to another project.

You can select projects by gender, country or sector. I decided to lend to a woman after reading about Plan's "Because I am a girl" campaign. Unfortunately the Pacific region is under-presented at the moment but the agricultural sector seems to have a large number of projects.

Rather randomly, I opted to make my first loan to Gulmira Kachibaeva and partners in Kyrgyzstan. Gulmira and friends are raising money to purchase cattle so that they can breed, fatten up and sell on for a profit.



The loan had only been listed for one day and was 14% funded already. It should be repaid at the end of next year and I hope I'll get an update about the success of the project then too.