Philanthropy 2.0 and Microcredit`s Facebook

Have you heard about kiva.org or microcredit? Well, if you don`t have, I will tell you a little about it.

Microcredit is a form of helping people to provide loans and other financial services and who are so poor that traditional banks do not want them as customers.

Kiva.org is the world's first Internet-based system for microcredit. Here, anyone can give micro loans to an approved applicant. The lender chooses who will receive the money, by searching on gender, place of residence and type of business. The homepage for Kiva.org is designed as an online community and is therefore called "Microcredit`s Facebook”.

Here is a video which shows what kiva.org is working with:


Already during the famine in Bangladesh in 1974, economist Muhammad Yunus realized that small loans could have a major effect. Ordinary banks considered great a risk to lend to the poor. Therefore Yunus loaned $ 27, from his own pocket, to 42 women who made bamboo furniture. Then the women didn`t had to loan at higher rates in an ordinary bank. Since then it has been very successful micro-credit, and Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 along with his Grameen Bank.

Here is a video where Muhammad Yunus speak about his work:


Many financial institutions engaged in microcredit have a special focus on helping women. The purpose is to strengthen the women in society, since women are better at fulfilling its obligations, and to use the money for the good of the whole family. At the Grameen Bank women make up 97% of customers.

"It is said that if you give a dollar to a man, he provide food for one husband. If you give a dollar to a woman, she provides food for a whole family. "

Using the Internet the world has been much smaller and we can take part in what happens in the world (for better or worse) in a different way than we did before. And because of the Internet I became aware of kiva.org. If you create an account with kiva.org you can decide who you will lend to and how much (the minimum is $ 25). Kiva.org borrower presents each on a separate page where it says among other things, what the money will be used till. You lend the money and get them paid back after a certain time. The money you can either lend again to other people or you can transfer them back to your own account. You do not get interest on money you lend, but you can help another human being to a better life. I think this is a great way to engage the assistance because it helps people to become independent and self-reliant. Small loans to poor people shows in many contexts to be far more effective than ordinary benefit.

On the Internet, you can follow the borrower's and follow the history. You'll find updates on the project or the person you lend money, both positive and negative news. In addition, you can get to know other lenders from other countries and business development in poor countries. You can also learn about the culture in other countries. Example of what you can lend money to: purchase of equipment to store, refurbishment of the shop, purchase of animals, purchasing of materials, etc. In Norway kiva.org has almost 2000 members.

Today there are also others who provide micro loans to poor people, for example NamasteDirect and Micro Place.

Because of the Internet where you can interact with others from your living room, you can help others out of poverty, meet new people from other countries and at last the culture they live in. You can lend a person a small amount of money and if others do it too, the sum will be large enough that it can help a person or a family to become self-reliant and be able to live a decent life.
I think that is a great social-cultural aspect by using ICT.

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I am going to write about Socio-cultural and educational aspects of ICT.

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