Have Impact !

Just got a mail from Kiva… The people we have allocated loans to through our blog’s social project have started repaying.
We received a total of $55.11:

• Quirudis Altagracia Ortiz Cordonis’s Group in Dominican Republic (Activity: Grocery Store)
  Our Loan:$50.00
  Newly Repaid:$8.33 (16.66% of our loan)
• Maria España Ugaz Castillo in Peru (Activity: Food Production/Sales)
  Our Loan:$50.00
  Newly Repaid:$12.50 (25.00% of our loan)
• Sopheap Chun’s Group in Cambodia (Activity: Agriculture)
  Our Loan:$100.00
  Newly Repaid:$7.44 (7.44% of our loan)
• Kim Houy Lach’s Group in Cambodia (Activity: Poultry)
  Our Loan:$100.00
  Newly Repaid:$3.89 (3.89% of our loan)
• Ganna Shkirta in Ukraine (Activity: Fruits & Vegetables)
  Our Loan:$50.00
  Newly Repaid:$6.25 (12.50% of our loan)
• Francis Jamilett Areas Vivas’s Group in Nicaragua (Activity: Retail)
  Our Loan:$100.00 (12.53% of our loan)
• Mao Kung in Cambodia (Activity: Pigs)
  Our Loan:$50.00
  Newly Repaid:$4.17 (8.34% of our loan)

The funds are now available as Kiva Credit, which we can re-lend! More work to do

Check out our Project Score Card

In less than one month, we raised US$3,844 via this blog, through “Change Starts Here”, our social project. How about that for a change, hey?
That includes $61 raised via comments on the kickoff post.

Today, Elizabeth joined as our 7th member of The Road’s Kiva Lending team.

Thus far, together, we have allocated 30 loans to micro financing projects in about 20 countries.
A detailed status, you can find on our score card.

Original cartoon courtesy Daily Ink

Twelve years ago, I was privileged to coordinate an Antarctic expedition together with my partners and co-expedition leaders Ralph Fedor and Robert Schmieder.

We headed a group of 20 extra-ordinary people to Heard Island, one of the most remote places in the world, nothing but a small speck in the Southern Indian Ocean.

The core of the adventure was a radio amateur expedition, under the call sign VK0IR. We smashed all the standing world records at that time.

But the feat will not remain in my memory for the amount of radio contacts we made at the time, nor for the fact it was financially even a more daring adventure than one of physical challenges.
I have long forgotten the expedition had a false start when an Australian crook scammed us for a large sum of money delivering a half sinking boat as a prospect expedition vessel.
No, I will remember this exploit for the team we had. The way the group of people from 9 different countries folded together and tackled the harsh conditions and challenges of the extreme, and set a performance which became hard to match. Through its spirit of “camaradery”.

Twelve years on, many of us are still in contact. And once again, the group shows its great heart: there were some funds left over from the sales of our expedition book and video, kept in the custodianship of my friend and ex-colleague Ghis. It is now agreed to re-use these funds for a good cause.

On the occasion of The Road’s 200,000th visitor, we will re-use these expedition funds for interest-free micro-financing projects boasting The Road’s social project “Change Starts Here”.

This brings the total funds we collected and invested through The Road’s Kiva lending team to US$3,724!

Over the next weeks, we will be investing the funds in the Kiva projects, keeping you informed as we go along. You can keep track of the project through its score card.

Want to participate? Join our Kiva lending team!