Photo: Kiva.org.
Ivan provides safe, affordable drinking water to people in Uganda, a country where, according to my grandson, 38 million people are without safe water. Ivan has applied for a loan from Kiva.org.
I was visiting Suzanne’s family yesterday and heard from my grandson about a worthy cause he’s donating some savings to. Actually, not donating. He is lending what he can to an entrepreneur called Ivan to help people in a country he has studied get access to safe drinking water.
How did this interest come about?
My grandson’s sixth-grade class’s research on the UN Global Goal of Eradicating Extreme Poverty involved choosing someone from a poor country who had applied to the lending nonprofit Kiva — and making a loan. After studying the poverty issue, screening a living-on-$1.98-cents-a-day experiment, and researching some of the Kiva offerings, the class voted.
My grandson was disappointed when the majority chose to support a grandmother in Thailand who was selling hammocks to help her care for a sick grandchild. He says that Uganda is a poorer country than Thailand — and he maintains that hammock accidents kill people. (He Googled it.) He also says that the annual income in Thailand is 8 times higher than in Uganda.
I asked him what the class majority’s reasoning was. He said (a) there was no way his favorite would get the extra $10,000 he still needed in the 8 days left in his application and (b) the grandmother still had 30 days left and was doing this for family. (He talks that way — “a and b.”)
He is not taking his defeat lying down, lending some of his own savings to Ivan’s cause, posting the link about Ivan in all the many chat rooms of his chess groups, sending Suzanne to twitter to promote Ivan’s application, and talking to me about a blog post.
Now here’s what Kiva says about Ivan: “Ivan is an experienced and seasoned entrepreneur in the safe water production and distribution sector. He has owned and run a Jibu water franchise for over five years and still counting. With the opportunity to open up a water production in the Munyonyo neighborhood, Ivan is excited at the opportunity to take safe and affordable drinking water to the residents of Munyonyo and also subsequently provide jobs for the youth who will be involved in the production and distribution value chain.
“Ivan is seeking a Kiva loan to open the Munyonyo operations. The loan will facilitate the launch of a water production and storefront facility, ensuring that every corner of Munyonyo has access to clean and affordable water. Please support Ivan so he can provide safe and affordable drinking water closer to the Munyonyo neighborhood.”
Interested? Please go to https://www.kiva.org/lend/2688341. Click on “technology.” Then click on the photo of Ivan and his water bottles. If you like the concept, maybe you or someone you know on social media will be up for helping. The Kiva rule is that Ivan has to get the total amount he applied for within the time allotted.
My grandson admits that this kind of lending is not a money-making proposition. He will get paid back in 39 months — in other words, when he is nearly 15 — without interest. (And I guess Kiva will reach him through Erik’s email, as Papa used a charge card when my grandson handed him the cash.)
But look, my grandson says, water is important — every 10 seconds someone in the world dies of water-borne disease, and 38 million Ugandans are without safe water.
Not a guy to argue with.
For more background on the nonprofit (“100% of every dollar you lend on Kiva goes to funding loans”) click here. It has a very good rating from Charity Navigator.
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