About the time I retired at the end of 2011, I heard of Kiva from my brother.

What is Kiva about?

It is a cycle where you make a loan of $25 to someone who has applied through a Field Partner in their country.  While the loan is happening, you get updates each month of how much has been given back to you. Once you have been repaid the money, then you can cycle again and start a new loan. Check out this video of Pedro the farmer and how his loan works.

I began with 2 loans and as at December 2012 have donated 20 loans of which 4 are completely paid back. I have just added a widget to my sidebar, showing the loans I have made.

Instead of doing it alone, I decided to join a team or group with similar interests. As one of my hobbies is genealogy I joined the “Genealogists for Families”  team. We have 252 members from all around the world and in total have made 1,794 loans.

If you would like to make a loan, click my link here. Every loan made by my invitees means I also get to make a new loan.

Why not look into Kiva as a way of studying microfinance in school?  It is another way of bringing the world to your students and they can do something to help other families around the world who are less fortunate than themselves.