Stress Sponge

Donations

I’ve always liked the saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”  Whilst I am the kind of person to drop a few coins into a donation bucket, I’m not convinced that throwing money at an issue is the way to solve it.  Because of this I have always been hesitant to donate to those foundations you see advertised on TV.

This morning I was watching Breakfast on TV1 as I do every morning (Paul Henry makes me laugh), and I heard about an organisation called Kiva.  Kiva act as fundraising organisers for thousands of groups and individuals needing loans to grow their businesses.  The great thing about this system, is that I know that 100% of my loan is going to the group/person who needs it.  I also know that they are making a real go at improving their lives.

It makes me happy to think that US$25 is on its way to Bersy to help her improve her business,  supplying groceries to the people of Nuño… and that I will get it back, so that I can use it again to help someone else.

Bersy

Bersy is 36 years old and is a woman who has known how to progress on her own in life. She lives independently in the house that she inherited from her parents and what she desires most is to improve her quality of life. In the district of Nuñoa (district of the province of Meglar of the department of Puno), Bersy has her own grocery store. She is very happy with her business since it is very profitable. She has been working in this business for 20 years and what she likes best about it is talking with her customers and finding out what is happening in her neighborhood. On the other hand, what she considers most difficult about her job is having to stay inside her shop all day, without being able to go out on the street to carry out other activities. In the near future she hopes to have a bigger store where she can better attend to her customers and offer them a larger variety of products. For this she knows that she has to work very hard and without rest. This is Bersy’s 9th loan with MFP – she knows that she has to pay it back on time and she is determined to do so. In her village bank she is very responsible and is always waiting for agreements to be fulfilled between partners. With the 3500 nuevos soles requested, she will buy more products to improve her grocery store.

About Kiva

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide.

2) Kiva’s microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur’s chances of success.

3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them.

4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.