20.2.07

Comment Posted on Anothers Blog...

Random_Speak (electric - boogy woogy woogy) - Microlending

I posted the below comment in reference to the above blog post... :-)

:-) This post makes me happy.
(First off, I found your blog because you posted on my blog, isn't the Internet wonderful?)

About a year ago (maybe six months), I don't know how, I found the website Kiva.org, that you make reference to. I suddenly was enthralled. I began to make a donation on a pay period basis (I get paid twice a month). It made me feel good. I have continued that habit, and have been able to help quite a few people on Kiva. I have gotten about 4-5 of my loans paid back already and then redistributed those loans. That is good.

In October, as part of my job, I was in Scottsdale Arizona meeting with business clientele. At one of those meetings I happened to throw out that I would love to live on a mountain and be a Buddhist in Japan after I finish this particular career drive. An individual responded with a "Why?" and the conversation continued. As we went along this route I came to learn he was a Buddhist and, most significantly, had a very international scope in his viewpoint. He is part of a group to help finance and create schools in Nepal for girls (the logic is – if they are educated and have a skill set then they are too valuable to sell off for prostitution). I, of course, in trying to advertise my attempts to be a good human being threw out my involvement in Kiva.org (which was only as a giver of funds and marketer to my friends). He was intrigued as he had never heard of Kiva.org. Score one for the transference of knowledge between humans.

A month or two later, I get an email and learn he knows some significant people who are involved in microfinance, including people who are currently working at the World Bank and Kiva.org (I did not know these facts during our conversation, just that he was a Buddhist). He then, on his own, started a plan to get Kiva.org into the Nepal by October of 2007. And from recent updates, it sounds as if those plans are still moving forward.

In a very small way, I was able to help people. That makes me happy.

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