an ocean full of drops

If one person can do a little, than imagine what many people together can do.

In 2005, Matt Flannery left his job at TiVo to found Kiva.org, a microfinance non-profit organization that provides microloans to entrepreneurs in the developing world. Since its inception, Kiva has funded over 56,000 loans with a total value of $39.6 million USD, and less than a 1.54% default rate.

Meet some of the folks I’ve helped:

Sorn Mon, 42, and her husband, Kong Chey, 45, were married in 1984 and have five children, four sons and one daughter. Two of their sons work full time and the others are in school. The family lives across the Mekong River and about 17 km from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Mrs. Sorn has been in the business of selling fish for two years. She buys some of them from the market and some from her husband’s fishing to resell in the village. Her husband has been a fisherman for ten years. Doing this, they can earn between 20,000-30,000 riel a day, about $4.50 to $7.25 USD.

She received a loan of $500 to purchase lattices for repairing her house. Since receiving funding in May, Mrs. Sorn has already repaid 25% of her loan.

Long Nhek, 61, is a widow with three children, two sons and one daughter. One of her sons is married and lives outside the family home. Her other son one runs a motor taxi, and her daughter weaves silk at home. The family lives on an Island on the Mekong River about 15 km from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Mrs. Long has been a weaver for 45 years, a skill she learned from her mother. She sells her finished products to the middle man in the village, who will take it to sell in Phnom Penh. She has two looms in the family; one is for her daughter and other is her own. Though she is in her early 60s, she is still strong enough to work.

She received a loan of $1,000 to purchase silk materials for weaving and buy a new motorbike taxi to replace her son’s old one. Mrs. Long has already repaid 15% of her loan.

in motion

Things happen. And when they happen, they happen quickly, like an avalanche. Before I could ask myself “is this the right thing to do?” or even “am I insane?” I was booking a flight to Bhutan to teach at the Youth Development Fund in Thimphu.

It all started with a post on the SFWoW list, asking for a volunteer graphic designer. Not a nurse, or a doctor, or an economic development consultant. Nope. They needed someone to teach them Photoshop. I had to look on Google Maps just to be sure where Bhutan was. It’s over there by Bangladesh, no? It’s near Tibet, right? A neighbor of Nepal, isn’t it? No, yes, and sort of.

It’s here, where it has always been.