25 Dollars. Just enough for a nice meal in a restaurant, a t-shirt or a fancy houseplant. However, 25 Dollars is also enough money to fulfill a dream.
We all have dreams. Dreams of success, peace, and security. While some don’t even know where to start to make a dream come true, many of us already have very specific ideas on how to realize our personal vision of a better life. Often, what is lacking is not motivation, creativity, and commitment. What is lacking is simply the necessary money. A financial injection. A loan. A start-up aid. And it’s often this hurdle over which many dreamers stumble. Not only in developing countries, but all over the world.
The crowdfunding initiative “KIVA Protocol” wants to help motivated and talented dreamers with mini loans from private individuals and from companies.
Cheers to your success!
Being successful is great. And celebrating a success is one of the nicest reasons to enjoy all the money which comes along with it. Why not book a short trip to Hamburg in Germany? Reserve a table in a three-star restaurant and a charming escort for company. Order a good bottle of wine and enjoy a fantastic evening with your companion in Hamburg. Do all that and many other things you enjoy. Do it. You’ve earnt it!
But there is one tiny other thing you can do. A tiny thing from your perspective – a great help in the eyes of others: Instead of maybe ordering the final bottle of wine, why not lend that bit of cash to someone, who will invest into her or his business idea. Into her or his dream. Keep in mind: You’re lending it. You’re not giving it away.
The KIVA Protocol – crowdfunding personal loans
“Building the credit bureau of the future”
This slogan is the first thing you’ll see when opening the website from the nonprofit organization KIVA Protocol.
KIVA doesn’t support anonymous fundraisers – They offer real people with good ideas a loan that neither gags nor costs, but motivates, empowers and enriches – in the purest sense of the word. The minimum amount you can lend to a person of your choice are 25 USD.
Thanks to the KIVA Protocol, you may choose exactly which person we want to help – and in which problem area: Women, Agriculture, Education, Refugees, Livestock, Arts, Single Parents, Health, Food, Conflict Zones, and many more. Here are just two of many great KIVA success stories:
Lee’s Lemonade Empire
For example, Lindiwe from Zimbabwe, who is building her local “lemonade empire” with a loan of 500 Dollars and with her home-made lemonade called “Lee” is the nickname of 22-year-old Lindiwe, who opened her own shop with a KIVA loan. Today, she is well on her way to become a competition for Coca Cola, Pepsi, Fanta & Co. in her village: Lindiwe has meanwhile raised her lemonade production from 20 liters to 200 liters a week, and on top of that she started a small chicken farm. She teaches and supports young women in her village, has discovered online banking for herself (her husband doesn’t know her PIN), raises $ 10 each month, and looks forward to the birth of her first child.
Chancy’s legendary banana bread
KIVA not only makes dreams come true in so-called third world countries, but also in the industrial power houses like the US, Europe, and Asia.
One amazing example is Chancy from Greenville, South Carolina. Thanks to a 2,000 USD loan privately crowdfunded via KIVA she has broken free from unemployment and is now celebrating incredible successes with her own banana bread bakery called “Banana Manna – A little piece of Heaven”. A loan that no bank in the United States would have granted her. Today Chancy employs two other woman in her storefront bakery and offers an amazing variety of 15 banana breads! Among them even gluten-free, sugar-free, and Paleo options version. Her future plans are to expand the bakery into a cozy café and to extend her online sales.
The two power women, of course, have long since paid off the loans.
25 Dollars.
That’s all.
About KIVA
Kiva is a nonprofit focused on expanding financial access for underserved people around the world. Since 2005, Kiva’s global community of 1.7 million lenders has crowdfunded more than $1.2 billion in microloans to 3 million borrowers in more than 80 countries. On Kiva’s lending platform, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school and realize their potential. Kiva also works to address the systemic issues that keep communities from accessing the financial services they need, through projects like Kiva Protocol.
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