This is intriguing

By the way, that title is really hard to type when the "I" key on your laptop is sticking.

Anyways, I've developed a thing for podcasts lately because it's a way to make crocheting time productive -- I'm making a baby blanket AND learning about Roman history! -- and I've found this great podcast from HowStuffWorks called "Stuff You Should Know." Anyways, they talk about just about everything on this show (I've already learned how to survive a plane crash, negotiate a hostage crisis, and obtain squatter's rights), and one of the many things they've talked about on it is microlending. I've attached an article here, if you don't know a lot about it.

For those of you who don't like to read, though, microlending is basically nonprofit lending organizations giving out loans to people who would normally not be able to get them -- like, say, a rickshaw driver in India. The rickshaw driver gets a loan from a microlending place, he's able to hire some employees and buy new rickshaws, he makes some more money, he becomes self sufficient, and he pays back the loan NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT OF THE TIME. Ninety seven percent? That's incredible!

Anyways, I'm still learning about microlending but I'm completely intrigued. There are organizations (again, I'll attach a link) that accept donations to build up these loans for small business owners. This is probably the only charity you can donate to where you'll get your money back later. And it brings development and self-sufficiency for those loan receivers in the field, and lasting provision for workers... you know the banal phrase about giving a man a fish, right?

So I'm going to be doing some research on this. If anyone else knows anything about microfinance or has some good resources on it, I'd love to learn about this. And by the way, I'm not announcing that I'm going to throw my savings into microlending and see how this works. I'm just really interested in how this works and how much potential these organizations could have for improving social justice abroad.

Anyways, links:
The HowStuffWorks articles: http://www.howstuffworks.com/microlending.htm
And http://www.kiva.org/ The link is to Kiva, a microlending organization.