Kiva entrepreneur makes good on the first loan.

Maddy makes her first $50 back.

 
Kiva.org is a microloan sight that lends money to third world entrepreneurs in help their businesses and grow markets and economies. 

Maddy, my daughter (her blog is Pony Tail Club) received notification from Kiva that her first two micro-loans have been 100% repaid and her funds are now available.

If there's a non-profit that I can see really being of help, it's Kiva. 

Kiva funds every single entrepreneur in Iraq.

Here's something of interest: The competiton to lend to Iraqi entrepreneurs is downright fierce. 

 
Kiva, the microloan endevor, was on the CBS news the other night. I've blogged about Kiva before and my daughter has a Kiva fund. What caught my ear is that Kiva was now making loans in Iraq and the Middle East. So what do I do? I jump on and run a screen for Iraq and don't find a single business.  It wasn't until I included all businesses that I found four pages of Iraqi entrepreneurs, every one of which is fully funded. Oddly, they're all for the almost the same amount. I guess you need a grand to get into business in Iraq.

There's even this disclaimer:

This entrepreneur is from a volatile region where the security situation remains unsettled. Lenders to this business should be aware that this loan may represent a higher risk and accept this additional risk in making their loan.

I guess I wasn't the only American who thought I'd do my part to win some hearts and minds.

I'll have wait for the Gaza Strip Fund. 

Maddy's $100 Kiva Micro VC Venture Fund update.

So my daughter got a $100 gift certificate to kiva.org for Christmas.

A few days after Christmas I sat down with Maddy to explain what this Kiva Certificate was and how it would work. I carefully explained that she would be choosing entrepreneurs from around the world to loan money to. Before I could get out another word my little Alex P. Keaton hit me with a hyper-excited, "Can I charge interest?". (We're all capitalists in this house.) I had to break her little dreams of investment banking with a 'no', but I explained that Kiva plans to initiate interest in the future. 

I really wanted to convey to Madison that she held some power over someones life. She would be choosing to give money to one person and not give money to someone else. It was important to me to impress on Maddy that this carried an intrinsic responsibility and deserved careful consideration and thought. Maddy assured me that she understood.

So we started. I walked through the process and Maddy started looking at entrepreneur pitches. Sure enough, the thirteen year old reared her head. First she wanted to give all $100 to the first pitch she read, when I wouldn't let her do that she wanted to give $25 to the first four... We went through the talk again. I was somewhat disappointed. Maddy had been nodding her head agreeably but it was evident that it would not be as easy to convey the importance of what was going on as I thought. I swallowed and thought of patience as a virtue. We started again.

Over the next hour Madison made 3 $25 loans. Maddy wanted to loan to a woman entrepreneur in Africa so we held off the last loan for a few weeks but that loan was finally made to Evelyn Kwofie who sells computers in Ghana.

I have high hopes for this as a learning experience for my daughter as well as helping the world in some small way. We'll see how it goes.

The current Maddy $100 Micro VC Venture Fund Portfolio

Jana Georgieva: Hair Salon, Bulgaria

Seyfaddin Ismayilov: Grocery Store, Azerbaijan

Bernardo Humberto Castañeda Baas: Metal Shop, Mexico

Evelyn Kwofie: Computers, Ghana

The $100 Micro VC Maddy Fund & Kiva's Third World Entrepreneures

Third world entrepreneures will be receiving some VC funding this Christmas... in the amount of $100 from the Micro VC Maddy Fund.

 
Kiva.org is a microloan sight that lends money to third world entrepreneures in help their businesses and grow markets and economies.  So...

I've decided to facilitate this process and hopefully my daughter and I will learn from and teach each other something along the way.

My daughter will be receiving a gift certificate for $100 that she can invest in entrepreneurs who need access to capital. My expectation is that these tiny loans will be repaid and that I'll provide Maddy with $100 next year to ad to her Micro VC Maddy Fund. Then we'll sit down and have a talk about expectations and responsibilities. I think of this as a kind of 'Pass It On' project

I'm adding the $100 Micro VC Maddy Fund as a new category but I'm sure Maddy will be posting about on her blog at Pony Tail Club.

During the week between Christmas and New Years  Madison will be responsible for using the Kiva site to find 4 receipients to loan $25 each to. (Kiva uses a technique that allows / encourages this.) She will have to report to me why she chose this individual over all the others.

One of the most important in my mind is that she understands the finality of this act. Loaning money to one person means that you're not loaning money to someone else. Maddys decisions will carry repercussions for individuals that she needs to consider and not take lightly.

My goals in doing this are:

• I believe in Kiva mission and want to support them.
• I believe in my daughter and her sense of justice.
• I want my daughter to realize exacltly how privledged she is and respect those who are less fortunate.
• I want my daughter to feel the joy of successfully helping someone.
• I want my daughter to learn something of decision making and repercussions.

I'd encourage anyone who thinks this is a good idea to comment, do it themselves, or blog / link to Kiva.org.

Update on Fri, February 16, 2007 at 5:31 PM by Jeff Barson

You can see Maddy's current Kiva portfolio here.