As a part of Everyday Minerals' values, we actively support organizations that provide a better life for those we call our sisters and brothers around the world. Each organization that we join into are promoting a good cause that we back, while at the same time not exclusively valuing people and harming our earth and the animals in it. Kiva is just one example of an organization we trust placing our time and funds in. Read more into why we love it!

What Kiva is:

Kiva is an international nonprofit organization - based in San Francisco - that has been around for over a decade now. It’s grand mission is to connect people through lending so that many who are currently in poverty can receive the help they need. Kiva supports people looking to create a sustainable future for themselves, their families, and even their communities.

How we participate:

As lenders, we crowdfund with others in each individual loan. The borrowers of these repay their loans and we use the repayments to quickly fund new loans. And so the circle goes again!

Who we have funded this week:

Agness is in her prime middle years. She is married to a hardworking husband and has 6 beautiful children and 2 orphans in her care. She currently makes an income by selling cassava and chips. She requested a loan in order to buy more cassava and potatoes to stock her business that she started to bring her family out of poverty. Through her current work, she has set the goal to build her own house for herself and her family to live comfortably in Malawi. Leonor is married and has four children who are now 18, 17, 13 and 5 years old. The older two are in high school while the third oldest is attending middle school. Her husband is a dedicated businessman. He and her currently reside in the city of Portoviejo, which is the capital of Manabí. Leonor, who is a strong woman, fights daily alongside her husband to keep the family together. They sell fruits and vegetables at their booth in the central market of their town. Every day locals come by to buy their health-friendly products for themselves and their own families. Each day after work Leonor goes home to care for the household while her husband continues selling to loyal customers. They've had their business for over 16 years now, and it has allowed them to earn a decent living. This loan will help to buy more fruits and vegetables to further continue their family business that they hold dear. Her dream is for her children to be able to do whatever they set their mind to when they move out to start their own lives. Hồng has a stall in which she sells wine. She is an entrepreneur of 32, married and with two beautiful children. Together they live in Dong Son district, which is a rural town in the Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam. Her family is in a low-income household in this village; so in 2016, Hồng, with her husband joined the Thanh Hoa Microfinance Institution to improve her business and her capability to further provide for their children. The main hardship that Hồng faces is lack of capital, but she has successfully managed to repay two loans. The latest request for a loan is intended for purchasing the right materials to create wine for sale. With her business profit, Hồng hopes that her family will continue to be healthy and happy, for her children to find good jobs that they enjoy, and for her passion in wine to only progress with a relatively sustainable profit. Sora’s group of three members in the Kampong Cham province of Cambodia are tough women with an ambition to support their husbands in providing a steady income for their families. Sora herself is a mother of three school-aged children. She has been farming with her husband, cultivating rice, cassava and cashews, for the past 7 years to increase the income coming in for her family. She typically earns around $10 (in USD) daily. She is using this loan share to pay labor costs on her cashew farm. She knows that this loan will allow her to increase her crop’s yield and therefore her family's profit. Looking into the future, Sora wants to enlarge her farm, renovate her house, and help her children reach a higher education.