January 2010

So, in my first thirteen months making Kiva loans I made fifteen loans for a total amount loaned of $375. However, since the money is repaid and comes back to me to be re-loaned, I actually put in only $150. I didn’t put in any additional money from the end of July to the middle of December!

With the start of a new year, I decided it was time to put more money in rather than to just loan returning money. To achieve this, I decided that in 2010 I would make two loans of $25 each month instead of just one.

4th Jan: I just edited my 7,000th Kiva loan. To celebrate this milestone, and to start off the new year, I added another $25 to my Kiva account and made this my first loan of 2010 (my 16th loan overall).

Peter is forty-five and lives in Mankessim, Ghana. He is married and has five children who are all attending school. He owns a grocery store by the roadside in his community and has been in business for three years. He wants the loan to buy provisions in bulk to increase his stock and will repay his loan over the next nine months.

15th Jan: Payments came in as usual. Of note, Doniddemberel Dorjpurev (my 12th loan) fully repaid her loan though it still had eight months left to go! That means that eight of my loans have now been fully repaid. I have $26.34 in my account - enough for my second loan of the month.

I made my seventeenth loan to a group called “Los Esforzados De Nueva Imperial” (The Hard-workers of Nueva Imperial). This is a group of twenty-two entrepreneurs who live in the city of Nueva Imperial, Chile. The leader, Pedro, works with wood, making a range of items including kitchen utensils, earrings, brooches, yokes, and wagons. He would like to purchase an electric saw to help him increase his production. The other members of the group have a variety of businesses and will each use their part of the loan to support their own business. They each are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults.

The US$185 I have invested in Kiva has now provided 19 loans of $25 for a total of $475 in loans!

February 2010

13th Feb: I had $24.58 in my Kiva account and my 8,000th edit was coming up and likely to occur before more money came in on the 15th. So I added $10 to my account so that I would have enough money to make my 8000th edit my next loan.

14th Feb: I edited my 8,000th loan. It was for Ramil Abdullayev who sells vegetables in Azerbaijan. However, the field partner in Azerbaijan must be over their quota for the month because the loan did not make it to the lending queue. I’ll have to wait until 1st March before it becomes available.

15th Feb: Repayments came in and I now have $60.31 in my Kiva account. For my first loan of the month, my 18th loan overall, I chose Merlinda Aceron who lives in the Philippines and sells used clothing. She is 54 and has eight adult children. She needed $275 to buy more used clothing to sell and I contributed $25. She has successfully repaid three previous loans. The field partner for this loan, Hagdan sa Pag-uswag Foundation, Inc. (HSPFI), has three stars out of five as far as risk goes (five stars means the least risk) although it has no delinquent loans in the eleven months it has been working with Kiva.

For my second loan of the month and my 19th overall, I chose Juntas Si Podemos Group, a group of fifteen people in Ayacucho, Peru. They each are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if someone is delinquent or defaults. All the members have different businesses like selling food, groceries, clothing, drinks, vegetables, and fruits. Some provide transportation services, fix shoes, or have beauty salons. This is the group’s second loan. I chose this loan because someone in the Nova Scotia Lending Group, of which I am a member, had already picked out this loan and had contributed to it.

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