Admitted my first Kiva loan to a Cambodian village vegetable company. Kiva is a microloan service that works a social network. Local field partners look for targets to fund, such as small village shops or agricultural enterprises run by women. The targets are then advertised on Kiva's website, and anyone can lend a small amount of money to the target.

My target is Nakry Heang Village Bank Group, a group of 16 women running a fruit and vegatable company. They needed to raise 2,350 USD for buying more vegatables to sell. I lent them 25 dollars, plus I donated some extra dollars for the Kiva group to cover operational expenses.



What surprised me most was how fast these loans are raised. They even added a FAQ to explain the situation:

"Kiva is constantly receiving new loans for funding from our microfinance Field Partners all around the world. Due to press, new features, or outreach efforts, at times we have more lenders visiting Kiva than we have loans available to fund. At these times there may be only a small number of fundraising loans on this page. However, this is always a temporary situation, as our Field Partners post new loans in need of funding on an hourly basis. So, if there are only a few loans available, please check back soon! Kiva's volunteers are working hard to translate new loan requests as fast as possible, and our Field Partners are always excited to see loans funded so quickly! "

In Finnish, "kiva" means nice, neat, swell, so this has a specially positive clang to Finns.