Building a business is extremely difficult. There are countless things to consider and figure out: What product or service will you offer? Who will produce or provide it? What is your market? What is your business plan? How much money is it going to take to get started, and where will that money come from?
Now imagine trying to answer all of those questions while being one of the nearly 1 billion people on planet Earth without access to banking.
That was the reality for Leoniya.
She struggled to escape the violence of her Congolese homeland, eventually making her way to Southern Uganda. There, she found herself in one of Africa’s oldest refugee communities and began farming. She needed a way to feed herself, and the land was very fertile.
As she began building her newfound life, Leoniya realized that one way to make greater progress in her community was to open a business of her own.
“A businessman is a step ahead of the farmer in terms of profitability,” Leoniya says.
She soon opened a small shop, supplementing what she was growing as a farmer. Then the COVID pandemic came and stalled her business.
Enter Kiva.
A small loan from Kiva allowed Leoniya to keep her store open, maintain inventory and operate through the duration of the pandemic. She now runs the store with her daughter, tends to her farming and helps with her five grandchildren.
Kiva is a non-profit organization offering loan opportunities through crowdfunding to people around the world who may not otherwise have access to the capital it takes to help start or maintain a business.
The concept behind Kiva is simple.
If you’re interested in providing a loan, visit their website and review the many people who are seeking a capital boost to further their education, buy materials for their business, open a new business or expand their current operation.
Because it is crowdfunding, many of the lenders put up as little as $25 to help someone.
Once you choose a person you’d like to support, you are connected through a lending service who has vetted the candidate and completes the transaction. Then you’re paid back as the person’s business grows or they complete their education and find a new job.
"I've been a Kiva lender for a decade. It all started when my mom gave me a fifty dollar Kiva gift card for Christmas, which allowed me to make two loans,” says West Chester + Liberty Publisher Michelle Moody. “I enjoyed reading the stories of people around the world who are working so hard to build a better future for themselves and their families. Being able to choose the individuals I could help made the experience feel incredibly personal and meaningful.”
Ideally, once money is repaid, the lender takes that amount and loans it to another person, continuing the cycle and raising the financial floor around the world.
"In a decade of lending with Kiva, I've supported fifty different people in twelve countries,” Michelle says. “Over ninety-eight percent of my loans have been paid back, which enables me to reinvest that money in new loans."
Kiva has provided more than 5 million loans in 77 different countries since it started in 2005.
For Michelle, those numbers represent individual people, opportunities and dreams from across the globe.
"The loans I've given have ranged from helping a woman in Kyrgyzstan purchase livestock to expand her agriculture business to helping an engineering student in Nicaragua purchase a laptop for school,” Michelle says. “I love the wide range of people, countries and dreams I get to support through my Kiva loans."
One small loan in the hands of someone with a dream and the determination to pursue it can be life-changing. Kiva.org