A couple of days ago I wrote an article titled Our Most Popular Posts of 2007. After thinking back about the articles written in 2007, it struck me that I needed to talk a bit about another post that I had overlooked. The post is certainly not very popular, because nobody even commented on it. In my opinion, however, it is the most important post I wrote last year.
In September I became aware of an organization named Kiva and wrote an article about what I learned. The short story is that Kiva facilitates microfinance loans from people like you and me, and then disperses those loans to small business owners in third world countries. In turn, these business owners use these funds to grow and expand their businesses so that they can increase the standard of living for their families. Oh, I almost forgot. The other thing these business owners do, from thousands of miles away (in many cases) is pay back their loans.
Guess what? The concept works. Each of the loans my wife and I have made are currently being paid back – on time and on schedule. It truly is a miracle.
As each of us reflects back on 2007 and looks ahead to 2008, please consider the plight of those less fortunate then ourselves. I think Kiva is a great organization and one that you should consider donating to in New Year.
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