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Kiva was mentioned a few times today in my blogroll (like Olle Jonsson and Jason Yip) so I had to check it out.

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world.

By choosing a business on our website and then lending money online to that enterprise, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive monthly email updates that let you know about the progress being made by the small business you’ve sponsored. These updates include reports on loan repayment progress, photos of new capital equipment, narratives on business growth and standard of living improvements, and more. As loans are repaid, you will get your original loan money back.

I think I originally heard of microcredit over at ITConversations (either this or this one). There are two main things I like about the idea compared to traditional charity: the money ought to last longer and instead of creating passive recipients and victim mentality, create entrepreneurs.

Microcredit is big business with “more than 7,000 microfinance institutions, serving some 16 million poor people in developing countries”. What’s special with Kiva is that it allows regular people like you and I to lend money through them to microbusiness in Uganda. After reading up on them I decided to try it out, but unfortunately they currently don’t have anyone needing a loan (but they have some active businesses). Hopefully they’ll get some more soon.

This is the year International year of Microcredit.