KIVA Program Update

Last Thursday Dave Hall presented us with an update on the KIVA Program. The KIVA program allows individuals and organizations in developed countries to extend microfinance business loans to people in developing countries. The loans provide the borrowers with financing at rates that would otherwise be unattainable in their circumstances, and the default rate on the loans is incredibly low at 1-2% on average. While this form of financing has existed for some time, the advent of the Internet has allowed it to expand and become a much wider phenomenon; KIVA's use of a crowdfunding structure further underscores the global nature of their work. When a lender logs into the KIVA website, they are allowed to view their current balances outstanding, as well as the total amount that they have loaned and the individuals that they have made loans to in the past. One unique feature of KIVA is that lenders can choose among many borrowers, and direct their loans toward the regions or causes of their choosing. Dave led the Club through the steps of choosing a borrower and making a loan, and two new loan recipients were selected: Roth, a man in Cambodia borrowing money to build a latrine, and Sita, a woman in Nepal who uses the loans to stock her store. The funds they received, $25 each, may not seem like much to us, but provide these and other borrowers a path out of poverty and towards self-sufficiency.