GOOD NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SMALL FINANCE

Every now and again, I like to sit down and examine my "investment portfolio" and pretend I'm a hedge fund manager surveying a vast financial empire from my corner office on the seventeenth floor of a Wall Street office building. In reality, my office is a converted bedroom on the second floor of my home. My window looks out over our two-car garage and the view is mostly of my neighbors' house across the street. The portfolio I mentioned doesn't really qualify as a vast financial empire, but that's okay too. It's still a treasure in my book.

You see, my portfolio is a KIVA portfolio, a roster of micro-lending loans I've made to individuals around the world. KIVA [found at www.KIVA.org] is a micro-lending organization that matches individuals and groups of lenders with individuals and groups of borrowers in third world and developing countries who seeking to provide a more fruitful life for their families. Many KIVA borrowers live in regions where obtaining traditional financial backing to improve their lives is impossible, even though the sums of money requested are quite small by Western standards. That's why KIVA has stepped in and filled the void. You can too! Visit the KIVA website and join the crowd of micro-lenders.

I'm amazed at the fact that not a single one of the borrowers I helped fund has ever defaulted. The big-wigs on Wall Street can't match that record, nor can they really appreciate having made the difference in an ordinary person's life the way KIVA lenders can.

As I survey my own portfolio, I can see that Ramadan's zoo in Palestine is up and running again and turning a profit. Rahmeh in Jordan purchased more goats for her family dairy and cheese sales have expanded. The clothing inventory Eleazar from Mexico bought for her clothing shop has been selling well and 90% of her loan has been repaid. Karabek from Tajikistan just harvested the crops from the hector of new land he purchased and now he can pay for his children to get schooling this coming fall. The coffee bean plants that Edward from Costa Rica purchased are now in the ground and the additional livestock that Kadyrzhan from Kyrgyzstan bought are living happily in his barn. I could go on, but you get the picture.

You can lend as little as $25 through KIVA and make a difference in the lives of people you might never meet. Check out the KIVA website. www.kiva.org