Being Helpful From Afar

During our travels, Mu and I often talked and thought about contributing to the places that we were experiencing.  That proved harder than we anticipated for a bunch of reasons as Mu wrote about here, here and here. Broadly, we moved pretty fast so there was just not the kind of deep engagement in a specific place that would have allowed us to volunteer or help out. Secondly, we did not want to partake in the volunteer tourism market place because the impact did not always appear to match with the price tag.

What we have done recently in the last couple of days is micro-lending via Kiva and some micro-giving through GiveDirectly. We did donations or active loans of fifty bucks per country that we visited during our 20 months on the road. It is a small gesture to the many countries we came to love and the wonderful people we met along the way.  In this small way, we gave and we wondered if people might think about the stories from the blog that struck you and consider matching our contribution for your favorite place.  Doesn't have to be on Kiva or GiveDirectly, those are just the platforms that resonate with us. 

Did you like reading about being in awe while on safari and Tanzania? That would be a great place and there are tons of projects on Kiva for that country. Perhaps you enjoyed reading about our harrowing night bus ride in Colombia or getting turned around at the Bolivia border? There are lots of projects in both those countries too. Or maybe you liked my posts from Indo? Lots of projects available there too.   

The countries we donated to today

GiveDirectly (http://www.givedirectly.org): Kenya

Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/about/where): US, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Indo, Turkey, Jordan, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Israel

What kind of people did we select for micro lending?

The range is pretty big – there are a lot of choices. Some are education loans to attend school or get the necessary supplies. Others are in the retail sector to buy stock for small, informal businesses. Still others were for farmers or others in the agriculture sector, getting new equipment such as water pump to get better returns from the field. Some were for individuals while others were to woman collectives. As I wrote, there are a lot of choices.

A bit of background on Kiva

Making a loan on Kiva is so simple that you may not realize how much work goes on behind the scenes.Kiva works with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred percent of your loan is sent to these microfinance institutions, which we call Field Partners, who administer the loans in the field.
Kiva relies on a world wide network of over 450 volunteers who work with our Field Partners, edit and translate borrower stories, and ensure the smooth operation of countless other Kiva programs. 
Stats$1,931,600 lent this week.4,352 borrowers funded this week.98.77% repayment rate to date.

Give Directly – how does it work?

Step 1: identify poor households in Kenya and UgandaWe do this using modern technologies including electronic data capture, digital mapping, and remote sensing. To date this process has located exceptionally poor households: our average recipient lives on $0.65 per day and only 15% of households report having enough food in the house for tomorrow.
Step 2: We transfer your donation directly and electronically to recipientsWe move money from our US bank to our account with an electronic payments provider via a foreign exchange broker. We then transfer money directly to the recipient's account.
Step 3: Recipients use the transfer to pursue their own goalsRecipients use transfers for whatever is most important to them; we never tell them what to do. An independent evaluation of our work in Kenya by Innovations for Poverty Action found that recipients use transfers for a wide variety of purposes that on average generate large income gains. Common uses range from buying food to investing in tangible assets such as housing and livestock to investing in children's education.

It is weird that we ultimately felt better about being helpful upon our return and through orgs like Kiva and GiveDirectly. There are some of the same opportunities for nefarious actions in their ecosystem, but both orgs have great reputations and have been doing good work in the places they operate. I trust the platforms. That comfort was not obvious while we were on the road but we hope that our donations (and hopefully some of yours) will have the sort of positive impact that we all seek.