海角大神

Not long ago, I was in Kigali, , watching a small boy in an Annie T-shirt playing with a marble. The child was surrounded by sweet potatoes, fruit, sugar, cooking oil, and dozens of sundries鈥攇um, candy, pens, razors鈥攎uch as you might find in any small convenience store.听

This was his mother Yvonne鈥檚 place of business.* It was also the front room of the family鈥檚 modest two-room home. And it was a sign of great hope.

Yvonne was a client of , a local microfinance institution. The bank鈥檚 loans are partly financed through , a nonprofit organization that enables people like you and me to invest as little as $25 in mom-and-pop businesses in more than 65 countries.

Through Kiva, I鈥檇 sent $25 chunks of my own cash toward hundreds of clients like Yvonne all over the world. Curious to see the results, I was now traveling through five continents鈥攆rom Peru to Bosnia to Kenya to Lebanon to Nepal to Cambodia and beyond鈥攖o hear the stories of as many clients as I could. (The ensuing book, , was just published by Bloomsbury.)

Yvonne spent most of her days tending to her kids in this front room convenience store; the back was where they all slept. It was a humble but stable arrangement, the store providing a small but steady income.

A year and a half earlier, however, Yvonne and her kids didn鈥檛 have a giant stack of produce to sell and a home with a solid roof. They were sleeping on a mat in an unpowered shack that she rented for the equivalent of five U.S. dollars per month. Yvonne鈥檚 husband had been in and out of jail, met another woman, and then fled to Uganda, leaving Yvonne as a single mom in a country still recovering from , with no advanced skills beyond sheer persistence.

But persistent she was. She learned from friends how to buy sweet potatoes, sorghum, and other staples in bulk, transport them home, and sell portions at a profit. (Think of the 7-Eleven business model.) Yvonne鈥檚 first loan to buy bulk goods was for 70,000 Rwandan francs鈥攖he equivalent of about $140.

Prior to the arrival of microfinance, Rwandan banks required five times as much just to open an account. Yvonne鈥檚 loan would have been inconceivable. Her kids might still be sleeping in the unpowered shack, instead of curling up in a real bed under a good roof.Yvonne鈥檚 face brightened most when she told me that her children would soon begin school. With stability in their lives, the boy in the Annie shirt could learn to read the word Annie. Since , communication, and greater opportunity, these kids may very well have a wholly better life, simply because their mom had access to a tiny amount of capital.

If I put $25 into the best savings account where I bank, in a year, I鈥檇 have $25 and a few pennies. If I put that same $25 into a Kiva loan, which pays back about 99 percent of the time, next year I鈥檒l have a small pile of pennies less.

Yvonne鈥檚 $140 is less than six $25 Kiva loans. Six small piles of pennies, then鈥攖hat鈥檚 the ultimate cost to help a kid in an Annie shirt possibly have an entirely different and better life.听

This is why I Kiva.

*Yvonne is a pseudonym. Independent journalism scarcely exists in Rwanda, and the language barrier was formidable. On the small chance that the purpose of our interview was not utterly clear, I will err toward her privacy.

Related Stories on TakePart:

鈥�

鈥�

鈥�

鈥� Bob Harris has had a diverse career as an author, TV writer, and AP award-winning radio humorist. Often known for his 13 "Jeopardy!" appearances, Bob has also contributed numerous travel pieces to ForbesTraveler.com. He holds an honors degree in electrical engineering and applied physics from Case Western Reserve University. As a Kiva lender, Bob has made more than 5,200 loans. |

鈥� at , a leading source of socially relevant news, features, opinion, entertainment, and information 鈥� all focused on the issues that shape our lives.

听