Giving

Friday, November 19, 2010 Anya 0 Comments

With Thanksgiving so close the season of 'Giving' has begun and although it shouldn't necessarily be tied to the holidays in this household we finally try to slow down to be thankful and to think about possible charities and people in need. We give to the local shelter here in San Diego every year and pay for a couple of Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless as well as some support for Christmas. One of the things that I always wanted to do is deliver 'meals on wheels' or something as a volunteer around the holidays and maybe this is something we can actually do this year since we'll stay home in Cali. One of the charity pages that caught my attention a while back is Kiva. The site enables people to give free loans to people in third-world countries or in need in order to establish a business or take care of things when they otherwise wouldn't get a loan or had to pay interest. This is such a beautiful idea. Owning a small business we know exactly how hard it is to make money and especially to get started. Lending money for outrageous interest rates isn't something that I believe in and it seems like a great idea to help people with free loans. It's really hard to go through the 'applications' and pick a candidate when I'd like to help everybody, but for now I decided to help Marcelino and his family.



I have no experience with this yet and can't tell you whether the money actually comes back or not, but I'll be glad to keep you posted. :)

There are a lot of moving little stories of people trying to improve their homes for their families or trying to sell livestock. If our small loan amount can help them that would be so wonderful. There is so much that we are thankful for! Aaahhh - Thanksgiving is so close - I can smell the turkey. Haha.

Are you making any donations this season? What are you preferred charities? Have you tried Kiva before? I wanna hear all about it!

0 comments: