Kiva loans

I made a few loans today. One to an Ana who wants a liquor store in Julia, Peru.
The others to loans that only had 4 days left to fund. I hope they all get funded!

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Los Cusis Group (business id=122593) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Mohammad (business id=122522) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Alim Ibrahimov (business id=121327) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ilham Abdulov (business id=121558) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Donation of $37.50.
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ana (business id=131517) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Las Rosas Group (business id=121827) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Noel Kemf Group (business id=121828) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to La Exaltación Group (business id=121825) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Pedro Segundo Group (business id=122108) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Virgen Del Milagro Group (business id=122118) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to La Frontera Group (business id=122124) Counted towards Barack Oblogger	($25.00)
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Fortaleza Group (business id=122126) Counted towards Barack Oblogger	($25.00)
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Walter Kon Group (business id=122129) Counted towards Barack Oblogger	($25.00)
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Unidas Group (business id=122268) Counted towards Barack Oblogger	(

kiva of course.

I made a kiva loan today:

Dennis Julián Hernández Alvarado is a 43-year old single father of three. His life partner takes care of his children. He is a jeweler and has done it for a living for more than five years. His business is located outside a marketplace, which is where he has obtained the majority of his customers. His intention is to expand his business to benefit his family, which is dependent on his income. He is asking for financing to buy gold, silver, stones, and acids. His goal for the future is that his children finish school.

kiva

I made two quick kiva loans today:

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ana Julia Orellana (business id=131236) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ana (business id=131517) Counted towards Barack Oblogger

Wells Fargo RSI for Kiva

I just calculated my Retirement Savings for Kiva. Can you help too?

Wells Fargo is willing to donate $25,000 to Kiva: http://www.wellsfargo.retiresecureindex.com/leaderboard

For every person who answers 9 short questions Wells Fargo will donate $1 to Kiva! By answering you can get a quick estimate of your retirement eligibility without giving any of your personal data to Wells Fargo or use them for any services. So far only $800 have been raised and there are only 7 days to go.

Kiva loans

I made a few kiva loans today, to Julia's and people in Honduras.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ventura De Jesus Ponce (business id=131008) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ryan Julian (business id=130728) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Julia Pereyra Rengifo (business id=129066) Counted towards Barack Oblogge

Kiva loans

I made a few kiva loans today, to Julia's and people in Honduras.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ventura De Jesus Ponce (business id=131008) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ryan Julian (business id=130728) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Julia Pereyra Rengifo (business id=129066) Counted towards Barack Oblogge

Equality Ring from Equality California

I just bought a beautiful 'equality ring' from Effie, where the proceeds are going to Equity California. I've been talking to the designer (on facebook of course) for a few weeks, and can assess that these rings were solely created to raise money to defeat Prop 8 (the law... that makes our gay friends second class citizens by denying them the legal rights of marriage). 100% of the proceeds are going to the group for this purpose.

They are offering these rings at $10 for Pewter, and $30 for Sterling silver. You don't have to be from California (or even the US) to buy one. Please consider buying one (or more), we need all the help we can get in our fight against homophobia.

*Note, I corrected this because the rings are made by a person and not the group, they are just taking the money for the good cause.

Kiva

Back from Canada, had a great visit with family, and made a few Kiva loans today. To Julia's.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ana Julia Baca Velasquez (business id=127268) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to María Julia Chachagua (business id=127693) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Juliana Duran Arauz (business id=127770) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Hilaria Julia Sucari Flores (business id=130102) Counted towards Barack Oblogger		($25.00)
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Juliao Mapswanganhe (business id=126701) Counted towards Barack Oblogger

Kiva and Health Care Reform

I went to my town hall last night to stand up for Health Care Reform. We have major issues in the US with people not being insured or being under insured. I met some great people and had a grand time. But it was sad to see some ugliness, people shouting that it was 'their money and no one else should have it'. One guy kept telling everyone that he gave away more money than they made in a year. I found this particularly obnoxious because he had no idea who he was yelling to, he just assumed he was richer than everyone. I've never seen competitive philanthropy before, so it was a bit strange. But, it looks like the regular folks outnumbered the mean people, and we will get reform.

I have been to enough countries to be ashamed of living in the richest country in the world that treats its citizens so poorly, we have vets living under bridges and children sleeping on the streets. And many, many people go hungry. Just so some people can 'keep their money'.

I also made a Kiva loan today to Juliana Duran Arauz in Nicaragua. She wants housing.

I am off to Canada for a few days, not sure I"ll be posting. But I'll be trying to make the world better if I can.

Kiva loan

I made a Kiva loan today to Ana Julia Baca Velásquez for her transportation company. She is 44, which is almost my age.

I wish her all the best.

kiva

I made a loan today to María Julia Chachagua, in San Salvadore, El Savadore.

Busy, busy, busy

I have been busy but not posting, Life happens.

I made two loans today, to Julia's.

Julia del Carmen Medina Cáceres is 45. She is a very happy woman. In spite of the difficulties she has gone through, she has always maintained her enthusiastic spirit. This has helped her with her business, a small mini market. She has had the business for over 11 years. Julia has always liked this business because she likes to interact with people. She likes to make progress. That is why she is asking for a loan to invest in her mini market. She will buy candy, crackers, bread, natural soft drinks, and juice.
In the future she wishes to expand her small market and become a distributor who supplies her neighbors.

Did I mention I've been busy working on my small business, and plan to make it more into a wholesale distributor.

The other Julia I loaned to is Julia Herminia in Lima, Peru.

Julia has been working since she was 16 years old. She learned to bake with the woman she used to work for, who baked cakes for a living. When the lady died Julia lost her job, so she started to bake cakes at home. She now sells them to schools and hospitals. She cleans houses on Saturday and Sunday. Julia’s financial resources have increased since she joined Finca. Julia has asked for a loan of 1,200 soles ($425). She will use the money to buy flour, butter and eggs. Her goal is to eventually buy a car to provide school transportation.

Loans to Afganistan.

I made a Kiva loan today to the Karema Group. I was attracted to the weaving.

Karema is the group leader of the Karema group, which has four members.
Karema and Sareya want a loan for their carpet-weaving business; they want to buy necessary materials. Abdull Wakell wants a loan for his taxi business, and wants to buy necessary materials. Omid wants a loan for his metal shop business; he wants to add to his stock and enlarge his shop. They all want to expand and improve their businesses and want to earn more money to support their families.
They are very happy with this loan process in Afghanistan. They want to thank all AFSG and Kiva lenders.

Weekend to End Breast Cancer

I just donated to a friend who is raising money to help cure cancer.

The Weekend to End Breast Cancer is a two-day, 60-kilometre walk through the neighbourhoods of Montreal.

Proceeds benefit the Jewish General Hospital, funding important breast cancer research, education, services and care.

I like supporting my friends in their efforts to help change the world. Every bit helps.

Loans to Honduras

I made 4 quick loans to Honduras using Kiva Credit (credit from past loans paid back). Must admit, I'm so busy that I didn't even read them, just loaned.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Nuevo Despertar Group (business id=126060) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Los Tres Amigos Group (business id=126054) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Leyla Marina Nuñez Aguilera (business id=126053) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Jose Orlando Pavon (business id=123861) Counted towards Barack Oblogger

What's your best idea for Africa?

Today a friend introduced me to a new challenge (Thanks Ramona). She said:

"There is currently a challenge running called "What's your best idea for Africa?" In this challenge you have the power to help solve rural Africa's greatest challenges – simply add your voice, your comments, your ideas. Your idea could win up to $3,000 each month. In November, the best action plan wins $20,000 – plus opportunities to meet with leaders in the development community to discuss bringing those ideas to life.

The project I have found really worthy to support is called "CreditSMS - The Future of Microfinance (www.creditsms.org)". CreditSMS is developing an SMS-based microfinance delivery and tracking system in order to reduce the transportation costs associated with delivering credit to clients in rural and disconnected areas. In turn, they hope microfinance institutions will use revenue saved to lower their interest rates, making the loan environment more amenable to BOP entrepreneurs and encouraging higher participation.

If you also think that this is a great idea I would be very happy if you could add your vote at http://arc.peacecorpsconnect.org/view/279/creditsms-the-future-of-microfinance-%28wwwcreditsmsorg%29 (the little green button on the right - "endorse it!"). You have to register first but this is rather easy."

Made a Kiva loan today to someone with Julia in their name.

Loan Purchase of $25 to Santos Juliana García Menchú (business id=125586) Counted towards Barack Oblogger

Ms. Santos Juliana Garcia Menchu is 35 years old, married, and lives with her 3 children. At the moment, she doesn't have much monthly income from her work as a local artisan. She is approaching the ASDIR association for a small loan so that she can buy a gas stove in order to cook her food, since she spends so much time doing this that it is hard to find enough time to advance her artisan work on a daily basis. This stove will offer her some much needed help, which will allow her to increase her income, in addition to improving the quality of life for Ms. Garcia and her children.

kiva

I made two loans today.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Herlinda Trinidad Montoya (business id=125504) Counted towards Barack Oblogger	($25.00)
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Julia Morales Velazquez (business id=125521) Counted towards Barack Oblogger

kiva loans

I just saw that Kiva is making (on average) $1.7 million in loans a week. That is just incredible. I can remember (Dec 2006 i think) when Kiva hit its first million. The web is exponential. And exponential gets big really fast.

I made three loans today. Chosen on being the oldest loans.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Los Angeles Group (business id=124590) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Ali (business id=105103) Counted towards Barack Oblogger
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Jose Abel Artola Sanchez (business id=116026) Counted towards Barack Oblogger

Abir's Garden: A Playground for Si'ir Girls School

I made a donation today to

Abir's Garden: A Playground for Si'ir Girls School

The project is intended as a memorial to the 10 year old Abir that was killed by Israeli soldiers close to her school in Anata. Abir was the daughter of Bassam Aramin, one of the founders of Combatants for Peace. The Aramin family chose to turn their tragedy and despair into care, creativity, and teamwork in memory of their daughter Abir. The Abir’s Garden Project transformed her school in East Jerusalem, bringing former combatants from both sides together to build a playground that soon became the favorite gathering place for families. Now Combatants for Peace is expanding the project to the Si’ir Girls School, near Hebron with the help of their school community to build the next playground.

Food for the vets

I brought a snacks to the vets today - 3 flats of cup of noodles, a flat of microwavable mac & cheese, a flat of V8 drinks, and a flat of orange juice, and a box of 48 granola bars. The flats have ~20-30 items. From Smart & Final. Anyhow, they really appreciated the items. It cost me about $40, it will probably last the volunteer office a few weeks-month, and keep a few vets out of jail 'cause they won't go robbin the PX or caf when they don't have money and are hungry. And every vet who gets something knows that someone cares. So its a really, really good ROI (return on investment). And its easy for me, when I do my Smart & Final run I buy extra and leave it in the car and bring it in when I go to lab meetings. I have a little 'granny' cart and just have to remember to walk up the way with the ramp and not the stairs.

I'm thinking there are VA's all over the country that need snacks. They may not all serve the same number of homeless vets as we do, at least I would hope not. They live all over the VA. I should do a photo op.

Loans to Honduras

I made three loans to Honduras today.

	Loan Purchase of $25 to Paola Rosa Lopez Amador (business id=123046) Counted towards KIVA Shopping Club
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Gladis Argentina Mendoza Matute (business id=122271) Counted towards KIVA Shopping Club
	Loan Purchase of $25 to Yajaira Lizeth Palma Quiñonez (business id=123044) Counted towards KIVA Shopping Club

Relay for Second Life - American Cancer Society

I just made a donation to the American Cancer Society through the Relay for Life in Second Life's charity event. A (real life) friend of mine is participating. That's her avitar.

Calling all KIVA FRIENDS

I just made a loan to The Communal Group "Esperanza 2006" along with lots of other Kiva friends, to try to get as many kiva friends on the loan as possible.

If you're interested, here is the link to the discussion,
and how to put Kiva friends in your kiva avatar.

thanks.

Loan to Julian in Nicaragua

I made a loan today to Julián Obando Mercado. He is 48 years old and lives with his wife, who works and helps him cover household expenses, in the San José Los Rios neighbourhood located in the municipality of Ticuantepe. They have three adolescent children who attend school and work in their free time. He plans to improve his family’s living conditions.

Julián has worked in agriculture for 20 years. He started out with the help of agrarian reform. He plans to diversify his crops.

With this loan, he will purchase fertilsers and supplies to produce a good yield to sell at a good price in the market. He thanks AFODENIC for making these beneficial improvements on his farm possible.

Loans to Honduras

The Kiva.org loan tracker notified me of a few loans to Honduras, and there were still a few available when I logged on. So today I made 3 loans to Honduras, one to Raquel Emperatriz Nuñez Salinas in Danli for her catering business, another to Corina Andino Sanabria also in Danli and the third to Jesus Gustavo Espinoza Almendare, a furniture maker in Danli.

kiva

I made a loan today to Julia Chamorro in Totonicapán, Guatemala to purchase raw materials for her business. I couldn't resist a Julia with a sewing machine!

I also made a loan to the Senor De Lagunas Group in Bolivia. The thirteen women who make up the Señor de Lagunas Association are all members of the Los Andes Community Center, which is located in the city of El Alto. It is a very cheerful group that works very responsibly on the center's internal activities in cooperation with its loan officer.

Most of the group members sell clothing. For example, Vicky sells pants for all ages. Other group members sell jackets, winter clothing, or baby and children's clothing, while some prepare and serve meals.

The group members are requesting larger loan amounts in order to buy more merchandise so that they can increase their sales and their incomes. They all share the ultimate goal of improving their families' quality of life.

Another Kiva loan to Julia

I made a loan today to Julia Carlotain Peru. She is 46, married, and has three children. The children are 22, 21, and 16. The older children are married; the last one is studying English.

Julia started selling sandwiches, but that was not good because there was so much competition in the area where she sold. Her sister got her into selling beauty products by catalog. She started with one line, and now she sells for three beauty companies.

Since she started with Finca, she has learned that every woman has the opportunity to advance.

She needs a loan for 1,200 PEN to buy beauty products by catalog and be able to stock her inventory.

Julia’s dream is to have a bazaar style bookstore.
I'm off to Canada for a week or so. All the best.

Kiva loan to a Julia

I made a Kiva loan today to Julia Adriana Almanza Trevino in Mexico. She wants money to finish her home and have walls.

Old Kiva loans

I made 4 loans today, the 4 oldest. All are due to expire in a few days, so I hope they get funded.

Kiva - lending to a Julias, weavers, and ladies wearing hats

I made 3 kiva loans today - to Julia in Puno, Peru for her clothing business, and to Pteronila for her weaving and to Ysabel for her crafts business.

Sponsoring a long bike ride for Unicef

I am sponsoring Jorge Mitre who is riding his bike from the Rockies to the Andes, to raise money for children in Guatemala via unicef. My sister is a big UNICEF volunteer, and works with Jorge's wife at the Calgary office.

He only wants to raise $10,000, I hope he raises significantly more. Its a very, very long way.

Kiva

I made a kiva loan to Rosa Julia in Ayacucho, Peru for firewood.