Our microfinance project runs as a train

In between the negativity of the tragic news of bombings in Islamabad and Peshawar this week, the continuing earthquakes and floods in Asia, the droughts in East Africa, and warnings of upcoming floods in Africa later this year, here is a bit of positive news.

Almost a year ago, I used The Road to the Horizon to kick off "Change Starts Here", our micro finance project.

Little did I know that 11 months later, the project would take that high a flight... I started it as an "I need to do more" project, donating $1 for each comment on the kickoff post.

Soon, colleagues at work joined, and we held several evening dinners, where people contributed to the project.

Then friends from our Antarctic expedition team joined in, and brought the total to over US$3,000.

From time to time, an individual stepped up and had the project take a leap. Like Ekram who asked people to allocate a loan to Kiva as a birthday present, rather than gifts. Just this week, another Friend joined and gave US$300 from her mission allowance to these loans.

Our Kiva Lenders team gradually expanded to 25 active members who have contributed US$4,614 to date.

As time went by, Kiva entrepreneurs paid back loans to us, which we reinvested. The total of re-allocated loans comes to US$5,141.

In May, I started a new blog, Have Impact!, where I post all updates and new loans.

The project has issued over 300 loans, for a total value of US$14,475. Our Kiva lenders team has 25 members. Not bad, after 11 months, hey?

As we will soon celebrate the one year anniversary of our project, I am preparing a small competition and fundraiser. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, check out the project score card. Join our Kiva team.