After last week’s failed attempt to loan some money, there are a bunch of Nicaraguan entrepreneurs on Kiva to whom we can loan our CAN $330. I went through the list, and picked three possible candidates, based on the amount of money they need. Here’s a little blurb on each of them. Click the link to read more about them. They’re translated from Spanish, so the English is a bit peculiar:
Mario Francisco Siero Valle is 51 years old and lives outside Ticuantepe. He will use the loan to buy staple foods and school supplies as these sell well at the beginning of the school year.
Doña Reynalda has a general store and from her home, she sells fritanga (grill food) in the evenings. She has nine years of experience. She began with her own capital, selling a few products, and has continued growing and improving the economic situation of her family. With this loan she wants to buy products to stock the general store and offer her clients variety.
Roman Alberto Sandoval Mejia is a small-scale rice grower who is well-known in his community because of his dedication to this crop. Mr. Roman will use this loan to participate as a member in the construction of a rice threshing machine, thus he can reach his dream as a rice grower.
Now let’s vote on who the loan should go to. RSS readers, this blog post has a poll embedded in it, so please click through to the post to vote.
NOTE: The order of the people listed below may not match the list above. So make sure you pick the right name. I know, I know. I am dumb.
Incidentally, Kiva launched an API for their site today, which is pretty cool.
UPDATE: Predictably, in the ensuing 24 hours, most of the loan that Roman (the most popular choice) needed had already been fulfilled. So out of the US $267, I completed Roman’s loan with US $200, paid $50 to Doña’s loan and gave the remaining $17 to Kiva for administrative expenses. When these loans come due in twelve months, I’ll repeat this selection process for new recipients.
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