Our Very First Micro-Loans

Hi, Ethos Friends! Today, I am over the moon to announce that we’ve made our very first micro-loans. Here’s how it happened:

Our first Ethos Book Club book was called “Half the Sky” and it was about ways that women have risen above oppression and become successful and happy leaders in their communities. One of the ways that we learned about to help women do just this is through something called “microfinance.” In a nutshell, microfinance is a banking service that is provided to people with low income who would otherwise not be able to gain financial assistance. It can be a little bit grassroots, but it is catching on. Through microfinance, average people can send money to borrowers who have been vetted by local institutions and are likely to be able to make timely repayments on their loans. Often, groups are formed so that if one member defaults on their loan, the other group members will supplement the payments for one another so that the lenders still get their money returned and borrowers are able to grow their businesses.

After our first book club meeting, I pledged to start making micro-loans. At the beginning of March, I posted an Instagram story that I would use $50 from the next shop order that came in to make micro-loans. It took until just yesterday, but 4 (!!!) orders came in in 24 hours (which has not happened since the day that Ethos Kolekto opened and my pals rallied to give me a positive start. With that, I spent some time on Kiva getting to know some of the potential available borrowers.

I decided to focus my funds on women entrepreneurs who worked in agriculture and wanted to use their earnings to send their children to school. I also focused my attention on the Horn of Africa, since they’ve been living through an extreme drought that has put millions of people at risk of dehydration and starvation. There were no available loans in Somalia or Ethiopia (also undergoing conflict and malnutrition), so I’ve appropriated $50 plus fees to two woman farmers in Kenya. Meet Rose and Elly. They are both mothers with big dreams of expanding their dairy and agriculture businesses so that they can support their families and ensure that their children are able to go to school. If you’d like to join me in making a micro-loan, click on the names above to fully fund the loans to which I’ve contributed or check out Kiva for more borrowers around the world. At the end of the loan period, you can can your money out or you can re-invest it (often with a matched donation from Kiva so your dollars go even further!).

Also, if you’d like to join us for the next round of Ethos Book Club, please sign up here. We will be reading “The Girl Who Smiled Beads” by Clemantine Wamariya and will be discussing life as a refugee.