But what is Kiva?

Kiva is a non-profit organization that connects lenders and borrowers in order to alleviate poverty in the borrower's region. 
Kiva works with micro-finance institutions (field partners) around the world to identify suitable entrepreneurs (borrowers). Those field partners disburse loans of up to $5000 to the entrepreneurs, then post the details on www.kiva.org. Lenders, be they individuals or clubs like ours, then choose an entrepreneur to support with a minimum of $25. Over time, the entrepreneurs repay their loans to the lenders, who can withdraw their investment or re-loan it.
 

 
 

The Rotary Club of Dartmouth has helped fund everything from chicken farms, to grocery stores, to shoe stalls, to cow manure purchases! We have supported entrepreneurs in: Armenia, Benin, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Mongolia, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Tajikistan and Uganda. 
As our entrepreneurs continue to repay their loans, we will continue to re-loan to more and more entrepreneurs. 

And that’s how $25 can go a long, long way to alleviating poverty.

Eight years ago, the Rotary Club of Dartmouth invested $695 through Kiva. An as of June 2018 our original investment had been loaned out, in small increments, 269 times in 36 developing countries, for a total of $6900.
                                   
Learn more about Kiva at http://www.kiva.org/
Learn more about our club's involvements at http://www.kiva.org/team/rotary_club_of_dartmouth_nova_scotia

Anyone can join - you don't need to be a Rotarian to make a difference. 
But if you are, that difference will be bigger, go further and feel better.