Video: The story of a Kiva loan

A Kiva fellow made the following video which follows the path of a $25 loan from London, England to Preak Tamao village, Cambodia. It is a bit long (11 minutes) but gets at the heart and soul of Kiva - people making loans which have a positive impact on the lives of others throughout the world. It also helps revolve the concern many have about donating to non-profit organizations - where exactly is my money going.


A Fistful Of Dollars: The Story of a Kiva.org Loan from Kieran Ball on Vimeo.

I want to thank Brett from Personal Loan Portfolio for giving me a Kiva gift certificate last month. I used it to donate $25 to Ghalam Nabie Share Ahmad who owns a restaurant in Kabul, Afghanistan. Having personally seen the poverty in Afghanistan (and eaten in some of these roadside restaurants) I feel a personal connection to my donation. Here is the recipient of my loan:

Ghalam Nabie is the son of Share Ahmad, and lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ghalam, 54, lives near the Afghan Hotel and is married with five children. He has a small restaurant in the city and has good experience in this field and would like to expand his business to support his family. He is requesting an individual loan of 50,000 Afghans ($1050) for a term of 18 months to enlarge his business and to buy a new desk and table and other necessary things for his shop in order to further his business with more success. Ghalam is very happy to be involved in this loan process and is especially grateful for the help of the AFSG and Kiva. He thanks all lenders around the world.

December was a record month for Kiva. In fact, at times, I had trouble finding a borrower to lend to. According to Kiva's December newsletter, $3,827,400 was loaned to entrepreneurs and $2,156,125 worth of gift certificates were purchased.

If you are on Kiva or would like to join, we invite you to connect with us in the Peer Lenders Team. I plan on increasing my coverage of Kiva on this blog in 2009.