Kiva you dissapoint me

i joined kiva awhile back thinking it had a great business model. micro-lending to under developed towns in poverty struck countries. I'm not saying i have given a lot and I'm a big contributor to the site, but i am a small little cog wheel along with others that make this thing work for the borrowers. and when i say "borrowers" i mean those that don't have 20 different banks down the road and where jobs may be non-existent and you have to create your own way of life.

(and i know you may think the jobs here in the U.S. are non-existent but they are there you just have to want to do them)

for example:
Pedro Méndez Santos



"Pedro Méndez Santos lives in the San Martin municipality in the San Salvador department. Pedro is separated from the mother of his children. He currently has two children who live with him. Peter is 15, and David is 9. Both of them go to school.

Pedro worked in many factories, where his talents were exploited and poorly compensated. He used this experience to start his business. He has now set up a business making all types of clothes including printed shirts.

In the photograph Pedro is shown with the tool that is vital to his work. It is called a “pulpo”. The shirts are placed on it in order to be printed.

The loan Pedro is asking for is to buy shirts wholesale. That way he gets a greater margin of earnings."



i am currently lending to this man in El Salvador where 5,000 dollars is the average income a YEAR!!! These are (i like to think) honest people that were introduced to this great program and have a chance to benefit for a little better life.

There are many listings like this, well deserving people that just need what their area can't provide. $100, $200, $800, and maybe a thousand or two for groups of people that are in business together.

But recently when i was scrolling through the listing i saw something that disturbed me. Listings from the United States, and im not saying there aren't deserving people here that could use a hand. What got to me was the Greed of it, America has to do it bigger i guess. let me show you an example.





If you notice that there are two groups of women above "Nancy's" listings asking merely a couple hundred dollars,(split between a few people each donating $25, its not much.) to buy materials for dressmaking and food to sell at market. Then there is Nancy that is only asking a mere 8,000 dollars to open up some sort of herbal medicine shop. The real kicker is if you notice is that she is closer to her goal than the other women. i mean really, am i alone in thinking somethings not right?

I understand that it more than likely takes more money to start a business here in the great U.S. but to go to Kiva asking for 8,000 seems a bit much. Seeing as she does live in the U.S. and seeing how she probably isn't that bad off with her nice Glamour Shot photo. i am no banker by any means, and i dont exactly know how kiva works. But would it not be possible for Nancy to maybe only ask Kiva for 2,000 dollars and use that as collateral for a larger loan from a bank. If Kiva charges interest to the "borrowers" then she gets a little bigger loan from a bank and pay kiva back faster. By the looks of her photo maybe she can put her real estate company (or what's left of it) up for collateral. maybe I'm alone in this.

Now on to Mr(i'm pretty sure). Alix, He(just look) is asking a mere 10,000 dollars to further his vintage clothing company. seen here



If you look, the group below MR. Alix is asking for $280 dollars with 28% raised. which is about $78.50. Alix is asking for $10,000 and has raised 17%, which is about $1700. now everyone contributing to Kiva, that $1700 could have been shared between 6 different (take no offense Mr. Alix) people and fulfilled their loans. now this $10,000 that Mr. Alix i'm sure will receive could have been shared by almost 36 different people(asking about $280.) now lets face it, i'm thinking that $10,000 is to go from Pre-Op to Post-Op.





Now i am sure that there are more out there like this, but these are the first ones i saw and the types of listings i will be avoiding from now on.

i mean just picture seeing two different people on the side of the road asking for a small loan. one is standing in front of his modest house/place of business with his family. and the other is leaning against a fence uninterested if you loan him the money or not. i don't know about the rest of you, but i'm giving it to the person that will truly use it for something vital to their lives.

Visit www.kiva.org

just something to think about.