In August we will share our plate with KIVA, a micro-lending non-profit organization that makes small loans to individuals to help them set up small businesses. Their mission is to expand financial access for “unbanked” individuals and communities.
In 2015, the Social Justice Committee received a $1500 “seed” money grant from the Love Fund that we used to make small loans throughout the world. That initial grant has been repaid and loaned out many times over. We have made more than 100 loans to people in 28 countries. Not one of our borrowers has ever defaulted on their loans; even the coffee farmer in Honduras whom we had thought we would never hear from has begun repaying the loan we made to him back in the first days.
Our core capital has been depleted by fees charged by KIVA to administer the loans (the first manager of the program used to pay those fees out of his own pocket!) and so we ask you to give so that we can restore our funding to make ever more loans to even more people. Thank you for your generosity!