I’ve sponsored a new Kiva borrower. It’s really a great way to help facilitate loans, though there was a period when I was somewhat disillusioned with Kiva for creating a possibly unclear impression that the money we lent actually went to the borrower.
The money is simply used to facilitate loans to more borrowers. I think the connection that they tried to imply to individual borrowers was an important connection, but in reality, almost impossible to sustain.
In the end, I decided to sponsor borrowers in areas I was familiar with or at least knew something about. So my current sponsorship is for Mohamad. Details below:
Mohamad is a 56-year-old married man with two children. He has owned a café since 1998 in his town. Over the years, thanks to his business income, he has been able to meet his children’s needs till they grew up. On their free time, they help their father in the cafe. He offers all kind of coffee in his shop.
Today, Mohamad is requesting $1,000 to purchase a new coffee machine. This will enable him to satisfy the heavy demand of the market and be able to increase his business productivity and therefore his family income.
It should be fun to promote more coffee entrepreneus. I’m not sponsoring a lot of money for each, but I’ll try to spread the amount out as much as possible because the money is used to backfill other loans anyway. No need to feel guilty about only sponsoring an individual with a little money!