Beauty in Benin

I’ve just made my second Kiva loan!!

My first loan of $25 was recently repaid in full, so I had enough credit to make a second loan.

Last time I chose a Mother of 2 with a fruit stand business in Peru, and this time I’m choosing a Mother of 2 with a desire to expand her salon/beauty shop in Benin!

I’m pretty excited, I think she’ll do really well.

No pictures this time because in hindsight, it was a breach of privacy to post the other entrepreneur’s pic and info. But you can browse the others on Kiva.Org.

The Conversation of Global Poverty

While I am using my savings to come to Europe to live, work, and play, Shawn from The Uncultured Project has used his savings to go to Bangladesh to help people in extreme poverty.

Shawn keeps an interesting and thought provoking blog and YouTube Channel. His goal is to change the conversation of global poverty by presenting it in a way that is not guilt inducing or centred around donation-seeking. By re-framing global poverty, it becomes less hopeless and easier to change.

I’ve been following The Uncultured Project for the last few weeks and feel very inspired by Shawn’s plight. As a Nutrition grad, global poverty has always touched me in an academic sense (from the comforts of a cushy library). But now with Shawn’s changing conversation of global poverty, it touches me in a way where I feel like *I* can make a difference.

While I go about my new life here in Europe, I’m going to think about ways I can contribute to fighting global poverty too. This also has the added benefit of helping me put things in perspective so that I don’t freak out about money and things like that.

btw, Shawn is a Torontonian. w00t w00t!!!

Loaning money to entrepreneurs

Kiva is an organization that lets us loan money out to specific entrepreneurs in a developing country.

There are lists of entrepreneurs and their profiles, with information on where they are from, what kind of business they run, what they need the loan for, and how long they intend to take to pay it back. There are also updates on the progress of the business.

I think this is a great idea and I’m pretty excited!!

Before I leave, I’m going to choose a female entrepreneur and donate $25 USD towards her business. If I get the loan repaid, I’ll lend that to another female entrepreneur. If I don’t get it back, that’s okay too. I’ll keep you updated on this!