KIVA

 

I Bless KIVA, Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank with Love.  --fairy

 

Elizabeth's Story

Thirty years ago, Dr. Muhammad Yunus began a quiet revolution. He found that poverty could best be alleviated in his native Bangladesh not through charity, but through unleashing entrepreneurship. By grouping rural women together, he was able to provide financing for businesses that banks weren't interested in serving.

Fast forward thirty years, and Dr. Yunus is working to bring group lending to low income entrepreneurs in the United States.

And Kiva is going to be there to help. Through our new partnership, entrepreneurs like Elizabeth, pictured to the left, are able to grow their businesses and communities.

Browse Grameen America's loans, and learn more about Elizabeth and other Grameen America entrepreneurs

Elizabeth

For privacy reasons, the Field Partner has requested that last name and location be undisclosed

Elizabeth joined Grameen America with a dream of opening her own hair salon. To date, she has received four loans totaling $12,800 to invest in her beautician work, where she rents a chair in a hair salon. One year ago Elizabeth and her husband separated and she was left with four children to provide for. As her daily expenses increased she made the difficult decision to send her four year old son to be cared for by his grandparents in the Dominican Republic while she worked long hours to get back on her feet. Today Elizabeth is once again reunited with her son and is focusing on achieving her dream. Through Grameen America's savings program Elizabeth has already accrued over $3,500 in her savings account and continues to save until the day that she opens her salon. This loan will help Elizabeth to purchase additional supplies and continue to grow her customer base.

Noa's picture

Thanks for posting such good news, Elizabeth.  Sounds like one solution for the unemployed and underemployed.

Here's Kiva's website  http://www.kiva.org/

The documentary To Catch A Dollar airs one night only on March 31st at 7:30 p.m. in theatres nationwide.

fredburks's picture

Great one, Elizabeth! I'm a big supporter of microlending and Kiva. I have all of my retirement funds in microcredit. Thanks for posting this.

With much love and gratitude,
Fred

Noa's picture

 

What do you think of people in poverty? Maybe what Jessica Jackley once did: "they" need "our" help, in the form of a few coins in a jar. The co-founder of Kiva.org talks about how her attitude changed -- and how her work with microloans has brought new power to people who live on a few dollars a day.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_jackley_poverty_money_and_love.html


Brian's picture

I appreciated being alerted to this and I was inspired by the brief video here. I'm stunned to realise we need this in America but the system is completely rigged against the average person now. Bless you for pointing me to this.

 Brian

Brian's picture

I appreciated being alerted to this and I was inspired by the brief video here. I'm stunned to realise we need this in America but the system is completely rigged against the average person now. Bless you for pointing me to this.

 Brian

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