Give a Christmas Present to Someone who Never gets a Christmas Present

Pendo Luisi, 27 years old, borrowed $175 to open a cafe in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Please give a Christmas present to someone who never normally gets a Christmas present by joining us and a world-wide community dedicated to combating poverty. The community is called Kiva.org.

Kiva allows you to make small loans to entrepreneurs on five continents, leveraging just $25 to change a life.

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

Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Kiva was born of the following beliefs:

• People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in a transparent, accountable way.
• The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity.
• By connecting people we can create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

Kiva promotes:

• Dignity: Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships. Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.
• Accountability: Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.
• Transparency: The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans.

In the past year I have personally made 5 loans. Three have been fully repaid and the money relent to two others. One of these loans is 65% repaid and the other, to a 65-year-old lady cattle breeder in Peru, has just started.

We would love it if you could join us. Our team at Kiva is called ZenAid.