Support Kiva

"Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world."

I believe in what they are doing because it allows people to use their talents to help themselves out of the poverty trap. I build websites and I write - it's where my skills are and I am choosing to use those skills to help others use theirs.

It costs so little to help someone out of poverty, and that cost can be met in many ways, not just money. I choose to give my time, which is the most precious thing I have to give as it is the only finite resource in life. How will you choose to help?

Today is Blog Action Day - a day when all of us who blog are asked to concentrate on one topic and one topic only - Poverty.

There are so many types of poverty that I could sit here and write a list that would go on forever. Fond as I am of writing lists it would do nobody any good and only feed my 'list OCD', and I'm not a 'sit on your butt and bleat about it' sort of person, I prefer to take action. I would rather do something positive and commit to that as my contribution to this day of action. If each and every one of us who takes part in Blog Action Day either by writing or reading takes one positive, tangible action we will have made a difference, especially if we do it publically.

I believe in helping people to help themselves, in helping them to move forward, in taking small positive steps that are measurable and achievable. It is, to my mind, the way we are going to get out of this economic mess that we have been dumped into. So, I am not going to talk about it, Instead I am going to tell you exactly what my positive, tangible action is going to be.

I build websites, and I write. It's what I do and it's what I'm good at. My action against poverty is to set up a new lensmaster account at Squidoo and to commit to building at least one new lens a month on that account. All the funds generated from that account will go towards beating poverty by helping people to help themselves by way of Kiva. The account is set up, SupportKiva. The first lens is being created, to explain what I am doing and why. The rest will be shamelessly commercial to make as much money for Kiva as possible.

I am doing this as part of the whole Squidoo contribution to Kiva because this is not about me feeling good as I make a loan on Kiva, it is about raising awareness of what positive steps we can make against poverty as a community. It is about saying that I can put effort in, as well as money. It is about committing my time, the most precious gift I have to give. Each time someone looks at one of those lenses they will see a commitment to beat poverty by taking action as part of a community, because that is the only way we will beat it.

What step will you take today?

flaminglacer's mutterings