Micro-loans with Kiva.org

I've been thinking lately how I want to do more to help the world. Since I love living abroad and studying other languages, I've been thinking about moving somewhere, probably Southeast Asia, for a while and trying to start some kind of program to help people. One of the things that seems to make a lot of sense is micro-credit. This is where you loan small amounts of money to poor people who don't normally have access to credit. They can then use this money to start a small business, fix their home, or any number of things. Often, poor people are involved in production of some product or food item, but they have to borrow money from local moneylenders to buy the raw materials they need. The moneylenders often charge ridiculous interest rates of 100% or more. This ensures that they will recieve barely any money back from their efforts, since most of the profit will go to the moneylender. By lending to people at a normal interest rate, these people can take control of their lives.

Kiva.org is a site I just found out about that allows people to be micro-lenders. Local partners find people who need micro-loans and post profiles of them and their businesses. People can view these profiles online and loan money to them. When enough people have loaned money to supply the full amount needed, Kiva sends the money to the local partner, who disburses it to the recipient and collects payments every month. They also send out occasional updates so you can track how the businesses are doing. Kiva tends to loan out larger amounts than a lot of micro-credit organizations, probably because it's not worth it for the partner organizations to post profiles for people who only need small amounts.

I'm really interested to see how this works out, as this is right inline with what I want to do, so I've donated some money to see how it goes. You can see my Kiva profile at http://www.kiva.org/lender/donh.