Recently in Grantor Stories Category

I stumbled across Katie's blog, Thought Bubbles. In her 'Kiva' post, she describes how she heard about Kiva, why she decided to make a grant and the process she went through in making a decision about the recipient. What struck me about her story is that it really is HER STORY. She's young and inspired by faith, but everyone who discovers Kiva and decides to participate experiences something unique and meaningful. Go Katie and spread the good word!

I first heard of micro loans years ago when the Grameen Bank began their innovative program of helping small entrepreneurs in the Third World, and I thought it was a brilliant concept. Then more recently, when I learned about Kiva, I thought that it was one of the very best ideas I had ever heard of, and I realized that it is a great opportunity for me, as just one person, to be able to help in a meaningful way. I was really inspired and immediately picked four women to receive my loans.

It is such a great feeling to know that I can participate directly in the Kiva/Advanta partnership, so that a small loan I give to a Third World entrepreneur can make a big difference in her life and help her advance her business and result in financial security for her and her family.

Poverty is the root cause of much of the world's problems - wars, disease, hopelessness, environmental damage, crime, drug trafficking and more. Now, because of the brilliant partnership between Kiva and Advanta, ordinary people who want to do something meaningful can take direct action.

I hope that when millions of people in the developed world learn about the Kiva B4B Community, they will realize what a powerful force for positive change it truly is, and they will get involved.

I was glad to be invited to Philadelphia to participate in the launch of the B4B program and meet Senerita, one of the women whose small business I had made a loan to. In fact, I was so inspired from that experience that I added another four loans to my list.

I focus on lending to women because when you help women, you automatically help their children, and also because women in Third World countries usually have the least amount of personal power, and building their own business can help change that.

I hope many people will read about Senerita, watch some of the video that Erick took and displays in other parts of this blog, and then go to www.kiva.org and start making some micro loans! -- Karil Daniels

Really...who can get enough of Senerita? Ok, I'm biased. I spent a bunch of time with her and her husband a fell in love with their kind and open spirits. This video clip is based on an interview with Karil Daniels, an independent filmmaker from San Francisco who has made a bunch of grants through Kiva to women entrepreneurs around the world. Because she used an Advanta business credit card on the Kiva site, Advanta invited her to come to Philadelphia to meet Senerita, one of the recipients of her grants. It was the first time that a Kiva borrower and a Kiva lender met in the US. I had the chance to spend time with them together in the city. You can see some of the pictures from one of the series of posts from 'Senerita's story.' (click here for some of the story and pictures)