As a small businesswoman, I'm trying to do some charity this Christmas even though M and I are rather impoverished and the employment front is looking ugly. Due to that situation, it's mostly been little things -- a jewelry set to be auctioned by a school for autistic students and some beads I'm packing up for a charity that teaches crafting classes to underprivileged kids.
And then I saw a banner ad on insanejournal for Kiva. I have to blog about this. It is so cool.
Basically, you pick an entrepreneur in a less developed country and make them a microloan (from $25 to ... whatever amount it is they need). They use the money for what they need (feed for a dairy cow, a display case for selling hand-embroidery work, rent on studio space) and they pay you back through the site. So you're helping them get on their feet, but you actually end up getting the money back.
I am sort of a passive-aggressive psuedo-Marxist, so any charity or program or effort that puts the means of production in the hands of the workers is exactly what I want to be contributing to. This is just ideal for me. What a cool idea! I wonder who came up with it?
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