Beyond Charity: How Micro-Financing is Fighting Extreme Poverty Around the World

by Quanda Zhang, RMIT University with a foreword by Nomad

One of the criticisms of international charity organizations is that, despite the best of intentions, the money doesn't always get to the people who need it the most. It is possible to ensure that your contributions do not end up being siphoned off by some corrupt government official or are simply lost in the paper-plagued bureaucracy.

Good News Round -Up for Week Two of February 2018

by Nomad

In an endless search of positive news, I scoured the Internet, hunting high and low. and I managed to find these four stories for all my glum Nomads. 

Super Beans for Human Beings

Let's talk beans. Specifically, super beans. 

Developed by scientists at the National Agricultural Research Organisation of Uganda, in collaboration with the Colombia-based International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the Nabe 15 bean is better than your average bean. It's a fast-maturing, high-yield variety that drought-resistant. 

TED Lecture: Jessica Jackley: Poverty, Money -- and Love

I'd like to believe there are more people like Ms. Jackley than people like the Koch brothers, or some of the other people that have been mentioned on this blog.

If you like more information about the Kiva program, you can find it at http://www.kiva.org/.   

Since Kiva was founded in 2005:

744,179 Kiva lenders have financed

$300 million in loans at a

98.94% Repayment rate

744,179 people have made loans

80.45% of those loans have been made to women in

146 countries around the world and

the average loan is only $392.10

Here are a some faces of the people that Kiva is helping. 

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What's your opinion of this program? If you have a moment to "like" this post and/or retweet the link below, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.