kiva loans

I made two loans to Kiva tonight. They only had two loans. One was to Nuth Kimny in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia for his grocery store, the other to Santa Andrea Ajpop Alvarez in Totonicapan, Guatemala for her store.

Kiva

I couldn't resist this loan to Nazira Sodikjonova in Rudaki, Tajikistan. She just looks like so much fun, I want to help her out.

I also made a donation to planned parenthood today.

Education Generation

I made a donation to Arumainayagam in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka. He has one more year of engineering school left.

Education Generation

I donated today to the education of Miss Bakhtawar in Ratwal, Pakistan. She is 13 and needs $100 for her tuition for this year. She wants to be a professional nurse.

Sesame Street.

I donated to the Sesame Street Workshop today. I like the work they do in teaching kids about tolerance and understanding. Muppets are great. BTW there is a great Muppet exhibition at the Smithsonian, I saw it last month. Its in the gallery beside the castle.

I'm going to save my Kiva credits till they get more loans. Did I mention that already?

AIDS walk

I sponsored a friend for a walk-a-thon to raise money for AIDS. Please consider sponsoring her, she is young (19) and the type of person who has a lot of energy and passion and would probably do a lot more volunteer work if encouraged, especially by strangers. Not, of course, that anyone is strange.

Travels and Kiva

I just got back from a great vacation in Atlantic Canada; Nova Scotia, P.E.I., New Brunswich, Quebec and Ontario. Beautiful country.

I made 6 Kiva loans today, I bid on all that were available. five were to people in Peru; Guadalupe, Emiliana , Nancy, Esther, and Frida, and Dinh Thi Nhuong from Viet nam.

Kiva loans

Kiva is still running out of loans because of their new partial credit refunding, but I got in on a few. I still have lots of Kiva credit to use.

Lorenzo Och Tambriz -
Modupe Agboola -

Oluwashehun Oguniyi -

Bello Fausat -
Zilghian Julissa Mora Morlaes -
Fatou Diouf -
Fatou Ndiaye -
Kamil Osmanov -
Lilliam Isabel Gadea Rodas -
Héctor José Gámez Cardenal -
Ahmad Bahronov -
Fatimon Ajani -

Southern Poverty Law Center

I made my yearly donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center today. They send me vial, horrible stuff that makes me ill when I read it. They fight hatred and bigotry in this country, so their newsletters are full of the stories they helped, and the horrible people they expose. I think if I was to define evil it would be the hatred one can feel towards a fellow human. For whatever reason. Usually its because of looks or ethnic group or religious beliefs. Nothing substantial. The hatred is unfounded and a symptom of the person, not the hated group.

Injustice makes me very sad, and is one of the driving forces that inspires me to change things in the world. The Southern Poverty Law Center is one of the best non-profits against injustice, and does incredible work. Check them out. Learn how much we have to change in the USA.

Education Generation, Kiva

Yesterday I donated to Lgitharaj Shanmuganathan for his education in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka. Education Generation is a great new non-profit, please check it out and tell all your friends.

I seem to have a lot of Kiva credit and will be making many loans today. Great timing as I am going out of the country in a few days, for 2 weeks. I won't be blogging but I will continue to try to help make things better, not worse.

My new Kiva loans include - Loan Thi Nguyen in Ninh Giang, Viet Nam,

Firudun Mehraliyev in Fuzuli region, Azerbaijan

Nakaweesi, Tusuubira Group in Lugazi, Uganda

Trabajando Para el Futuro Group in Samana, Dominican Republic

La Bendición Group in Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic

Maria Auxiliadora Altamirano Ubeda in Chontales, Nicaragua

Deyanira Aragón Lainez in Managua, Nicaragua

Matluba Kaumova in Shahrinav, Tajikistan

Juan Locuor in San Lorenzo, Paraguay

Román Jara business - Despensa y Carniceria Ña Julia - from Caaguazú, Paraguay

Alejandra Alvarez Villa Elisa, Paraguay

Amavi Délali Baeta in Adidogomé, Togo

Koffi Mawuli Abidonou in Agoe, Togo

Fajri Zain Khan Group Kot Radha Kishan, Pakistan

Habiba Ashburieva in Tursun-zoda, Tajikistan

Education Generation

Today I helped out two students in developing countries through a new program called Education Generation. Its co-founded by a friend of mine (Shawn Smith), who also founded Agents of Change.

I am supporting Marleni: Marleni wishes to study computer science, but comes from a farming family with 11 siblings (ages: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 28). The costs of a post secondary education are impossible for her family to contemplate. This scholarship will pay the $500 tuition fee for Marleni and provide for her housing expenses of $500 for the entire year in shared housing with other scholarship recipients. “I would like to become a professional so that I can make something of myself and help my little siblings and parents. I would like to become a professional so that I can excel and stand out from the poor.”

I am also supporting Mohamed Aniffa Muthazar. Aniffa has been offered a place to study commerce, a monumental achievement for someone from his village, and his dream is to get his family back on their feet. There are no university fees in Sri Lanka but the student must pay for books, accommodation, meals and other expenses. These are way beyond his family's means.

changing the world by searching

I set up the igive search bar on my firefox browser and have been raising money by using their search. The money is going to kiva loans (in the kivashop group) and will be constantly re-lent. Its a good way to change the world.

Made a loan to Julia Justina Ponce in Managua, Nicaragua.

Mrs Julia Ponce is a 51 year old woman living in barrio 380 in Managua. She is divorced, with a 19 year old daughter and a 7 year old son. The children's father provides support for them. She has a small store in a room in her home, which she began 7 years ago by selling ice and ice cream. She used her last loan to improve her home, and she will use this loan to improve her business. With the money that she is requesting she plans to purchase basic grains and cleaning products to stock her business and to meet the needs of her customers in the neighborhood. This is a very poor neighborhood, and people purchase their daily needs in the small stores. For this reason,Juila must keep her store stocked with products so that her customers do not lose faith in her.

I've been donating to the Obama campaign and watching his nomination with glee. Many, many months of hard work paying off.

Kiva groups

Kiva has a new feature - groups. I joined the Kiva Shopping club group, where portions of online purchases are donated to the group when you use igive.com. I've raised a couple of hundred dollars for them already, just doing my usual online shopping. (it helps that travelocity is a member of igive!).

I made two Kiva loans today, one to Julia Vallejo Meneses in Ayacucho, Peru, the other to Julia Justina Ponce in Managua, Nicaragua.

magazines for vets and blankets and kiva

I dropped off magazines at the Veterans Hospital on Wednesday, and today dropped off a few bags of fabric to a group who will be making blankets for babies delivered to mom's who have substance abuse. I also dropped off a few bags of things to Good Will. Its better for the environment and our society, to share things.

Made a Kiva loan today to Kosar Abdul Majeed's Group in Kasur, Pakistan and Volver a Empezar Group in El Alto / La Paz, Bolivia

kiva

Made a loan today to Juana Huanco Mamani in Juliaca, Peru. Juana's hope is to increase her supply of capital and generate more income. She thinks that once this project is realized, she'll finally be able to begin construction on the house that is her family's dream.

kiva and relatives

I've been busy with out of town relatives visiting, but today I made a few Kiva loans.

One to Juliana Ecloo in Tema, Ghana who is my age (42) and wants to help her charcoal business.

I also made a loan to Julia Arguello in Luque, Paraguay for her business of selling sweets.

The third loan I made was to the Juliana's Harakati Group of 4 members in Arusha, Tanzania.

New loan

Made a loan today to San Jose Group in Ayacucho, Peru.

The San Jose Village Bank is a new bank recently initiated with eighteen members. The members are from the Yanamilla neighborhood located thirty minutes from the city of Ayacucho, where many of them migrated to the city or settled (without land title) on land where many do not have basic services. The members have different businesses such as selling vegetables, meats, food, ice cream, firewood, groceries, clothing, fruit, and cereal. Every member has a different story. For instance, Vilma is a single mother with a six-month-old son. Vilma sells firewood in her house and with her loan she will start a project to sell CDs and disks. On the other hand, Julia travels every week to the Ayacuchan Jungle where she sells vegetables, traveling on Thursdays and returning on Sundays. Also, Hayde sells sachipapas (sausage and fries) streetside in the center of Ayacucho with the help of her husband. She has her business on the weekends from six at night to five in the morning. The bank members need varying amounts of loans, ranging from 300, 600 up to 900 soles, and totaling 9,300 Peruvian Nuevos Soles to be lent to the village bank. The loans will be invested to buy noodles, firewood, disks, cooking oil, potatoes, beans, oats, corn, vegetables, and clothing. The dreams of the bank members are to buy their own cars to rent out as taxis, construct their homes, to provide a good education and sustenance for their children, to expand their businesses, and that their children may become professionals.

kiva loan

looks like Kiva loans aren't being posted to facebook anymore. I hope its just temporarily down, I liked seeing them in my newsfeed.

I made a loan today to Viviano Julián Mendoza Torres, a farmer in Peru. He wants to buy seed for more products. I want him to have a better, easier life. He works hard and should be rewarded for it.

addtional payment

I was half asleep today and made a loan to the group I already made a loan to Amazonas II Group. Oh well, they will get funded faster.

Traveling makes me tired. Back in the country for a bit.

kiva

Found this loan searching on my sister's name. Sounds superficial, but I find everyone is worthy. I wish I could help them all.

This loan is to Kiyinki B1 south d Group in Bugiri, Uganda for various enterprises.

Amina is joined in her small group by Lydia Kyazike, Rose Nabwire, Hadija Namutamba, and Hadijah Eya. Lydia Kyazike has a business in paraffin sales and wants to expand her business. Rose Nabwire is currently operating a business selling shoes and clothes and wants a loan to add more to her shoe business. Hadija Namutamba operates a public pay phone business and wants to purchase more credit cards and another phone. Hadijah Eya is currently in the business of selling clothes and is requesting a loan to increase stock.

I am traveling again tomorrow for a few days (Toronto, Canada) but will be trying to change the world from where ever I am. Can't hurt to try.