This post is a little bit different because it is not strictly about traveling but rather about the people and the lives of the people we will meet during our travels.  Really close to my heart is the economic well-being of women and children. Giving women an opportunity to earn a living, changes lives, changes families, and changes communities. By profession I work in economic development and am especially interested in entrepreneurship. Micro financing is a great way to help individuals start and grow businesses around the world.

 As I was doing my research for our trip on the www.bootsnall.com website someone posted a challenge to invest in business owners through www.Kiva.org. KIVA is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. KIVA uses the Internet and a worldwide network of micro-finance institutions to let individuals like me and you lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. What is micro-finance you ask? It is a general term to describe financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services. Micro-finance is also the idea that low-income individuals are capable of lifting themselves out of poverty if given access to financial services and relatively small amounts of capital.

In January of 2013 I began making $25 loans to women around the world. To date my original investment has been repaid and then loaned again several times. I have made loans to 69 women with businesses ranging from agriculture to clothing to construction to manufacturing and transportation.   Part of the fun has been exploring the borrowers, their business and the countries in which they live. My loans have gone to business owners in 27 countries on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. 

I have so much more I would like to tell you about microfinance and KIVA but for now I will just say that I hope you will go to the http://www.kiva.org website and explore the concept and the hard working borrowers.