Have you heard of Kiva? It's a San Francisco based organization that provides financing to small entrepreneurs in many countries, mostly developing, around the world. The way it works is Kiva has established partners around the world who find small businesses in need of funds and is a microfinacier for those businesses. Kiva publishes those borrowers and their business on a loan site, and lenders search this site for borrowers. The site allows you as a lender to select the type of business (retailer, transportantion, manufacture, farmer, etc.) and the area of the world that you're interested, such as North America, South America, Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, etc. The loans are typically small, $25 or $50, but can be larger. The attraction is that anyone can participate.

I learned of this when my grandson joined Kiva as a fellow. He is a graduate in accounting from Santa Clara and has worked as an accountant for the prestige firm of Earnst and Young in NYC for several years. Kiva fellows work without compensation in various underdeveloped areas around the world and promote Kiva and this endevour. It takes someone without a lot of ambition and a willingness to survive in primitive areas on little money, but who wants adventure and an introduction into the world of microfinance. Obviously most are young people, and they must be recruited by Kiva and undergo an extensive training program in SF.

I got involved as a lender because of my grandson. He is stationed in Armenia, a new area for Kiva. I've found that it is a lot of fun and a worthwhile endeavor in helping small businessmen around the world. I've loaned $25 or $50 a taxi driver in Mongolia, a farmer in Tajikistan, a fuel transporter in Mongolia, a small shoe manufacture in Lebanon, and more recently, because they just became available, on the site a livestock farmer in Armenia and a food trader also in Armenia. You can even join a team of lenders, as I have the team Armenia. My team leader, my grandson, gets credit for all of the teams loans, no matter where.

Try joining Kiva and lending. You'll get a kick out of it.