It’s about a week and a half until I takeoff, and I have recently found out that when I arrive, I will be living in a seminary. I don’t know who I’ll be living with or what my living quarters will look like, but I’m sure it will be a learning experience. Despite these uncertainties, I keep finding myself more inspired the more I learn about Kiva. Here’s a link to my bio on Kiva’s website. Scroll down about a quarter of the way.
In reading an article by the founder and CEO, I was reminded off this core principle: Kiva is committed to transparency. If some sort fraud occurs with one of their partners in another country, they do not hide from it, but rather they proactively tell their lenders and supporters about it. And lenders in turn respond with a greater devotion to Kiva as a result of their honesty, instead of looking at this setback as a sign of weakness (if only governments also held this belief). I will be proud to be a part of this organization.
I also stumbled into a little more clarity of what my life interests may be. Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen claims that although life expectancy increase is correlated with GDP increase in developing countries, that when two factors are taken into account, that correlation disappears. Those two factors: incomes specifically of the poor and public health expenditure. My experience doing health education in Argentina and working with microlending to poorer communities with Kiva fall right in line with those two factors. Maybe what I most interested in global development, and health and microfinance are just two ways at which I have approached that field. Here’s a brief Amartya Sen article or check out his book, Development as Freedom, for a really good read.
Meg Gray, a current Kiva Fellow in nearby Nicaragua wrote a very interesting blog entry on how different businesses in other places look. It’s a really cool read about breaking preconceptions
In case you missed it, here’s a little more information on what I will be doing. Also, for those still wondering what Kiva is, be sure to check out their website. It explains things very simply.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed so far. I’ve been able to raise over half of my goal of $2,000. Thanks for all your support.
