A. and I have decided that this year, we will be more charitable. We're starting off by sponsoring a child in a developing country. A. has a colleague in the army who has a whole raft of foster children overseas. This guy decided some years ago that every time he got a promotion, he would sponsor another child. A. was quite taken with this idea. So after a bit of research, we decided to support Plan (formerly Foster Parents Plan), since it has a long and reputable history of good work, and isn't affiliated to any religious groups. We signed up a couple of weeks ago, so should receive details of the child we've sponsored soon. We didn't indicate any particular preference as to location, but did ask to sponsor a girl - since I know all too well (through my work) the disadvantages that girl children face in so many developing societies.
Something else I've become really interested in is Kiva. Kiva is basically a microcredit organisation - enabling individuals to make small personal loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. And small is the operative word - the standard loan amount recommended is $25 per entrepreneur, and lenders are encouraged to diversify their loan funds among many businesses, thus keeping risk lower. Not that there is much in the way of risk. To date, on over more than $3 million in ended loans, the default rate has been a mere 0.1%. What's also quite amazing is that the majority of Kiva's businesses seem to be female-run; currently, of 67 "in-need" businesses posted on their website, 57 are run by women.
Anyway, Kiva seem to be doing amazing things for small entrepreneurs around the world. I'm very excited about it, and plan on becoming a lender soon.
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