These are real people...

Nicomedes is 48 years old, married and has 5 children. He owns a chiperia (local bakeries specialized in preparing a traditional Paraguayan bread called chipa) located at the building where he lives. His and wife and sons are responsible for selling them out of their home while he is in charge of outside sales. For over 20 years, Mr. Nicomedes has dedicated himself to this activity. His leadership skills have made him a very respected man within his community--he has always been part of community outreach programs, and even presided over the district's commission. His main goals have been promoting growth and improvement in his community. In the past, he used to borrow an oven from the neighbors until he invested the loan amount he received from Fundacion Paraguaya to build one for himself and to purchase baking ingredients. Now, he is requesting another loan in order to purchase additional ingredients in wholesale quantity, such as starch, vegetable oil, cheese and wood. 

Kiva = Micro-Loans Made Easy

This morning I sat at my dining room table in my house in South Bend, Indiana, and simultaneously loaned money to a chipa baker named Nicodemes in Caacupe, Paraguay. And how did I accomplish this incredible task, you ask? The answer: Kiva. Kiva makes loaning money to entrepreneurs in impoverished countries as easy as the click of a mouse. Here's some more info found on their website:

What Is Kiva?

We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

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 in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.

This is seriously so easy! What are you waiting for?! Help someone in the impoverished world now!