Support Kiva.org and my work as a Loan Officer

Hello everyone-

I hope you are all doing well! It seems as though finally spring has sprung and the winds are changing in our favor. I, for one, am more than ready for a change in the weather outside.

However, I am writing today to talk to you about a different kind of change. As many of you know, after graduating in January of 2010 I spent the majority of my year travelling, working, and volunteering in Central and South America. I visited La Islas de Uros, the Islands of Reeds, in Lake Titicaca. I hiked alongside farmers and their mules in Huaraz, Peru. I built an adobe-style home with all-natural materials on an organic farm in Argentina. I stood cheering among indigenous and Ladinos alike in Sucre, Bolivia, on the 200th anniversary of Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia’s independence from Spain. I was verily rescued by three little grandmas at ten o’clock at night in perilous Guatemala City. I was witness to the awe-inspiring work of Manna Project International and Mil Milagros at Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala to help feed and educate children in the area.

When I came home for two weeks last May, I celebrated my graduation with many close friends and family, but I was celebrating a change in myself as well. These experiences have profoundly transformed me. My passion for volunteer work and development has always guided my career choices and my travels, but more than ever, I want to make a more meaningful connection with the people and work in my life. Call me an idealist- it’s a badge I proudly wear.

In this economic climate, employment and security are scarce for all of us, and it is tempting to find the surest, safest, and highest-paying job out there. Nevertheless, it seems simultaneously that the world around us has become more hostile to every one of us on Earth. We are all threatened not only by economic crisis but also by climate change, natural disaster, and war. My generation has its work cut out for it. And I know just where I want to start. For everything that Latin America has given me, I can only hope to repay my enormous debt to it.

I am thrilled to be joining the 15th Class of Kiva Fellows this coming May. In brief, Kiva.org is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. The greatest strength of Kiva.org as a micro-lending network is that it charges zero overhead on loans- when you lend $25 through Kiva, that entire $25 goes directly to an in-country microfinance institution. Like other nonprofit organizations the strength of Kiva comes from its unpaid volunteers. Kiva Fellows must fundraise to support their time working in the field and to keep Kiva’s overhead at zero. Great for Kiva, not so great for me.

What I am asking, friends and family, is that this April and May, you skip on one lunch out or a coffee at Starbucks and support this cause. If one hundred people donate $25, it will cover half of my Kiva Fellowship expenses. It takes only a few clicks to make a major difference in the lives of many.

Throughout my time travelling and working last year, I picked up a parasite, two bouts of salmonella, and some comparatively tame bronchitis along the way. It seems that as much as I wanted to stay in Latin America, it wanted to stay with me as well. I ask that you can support my mission with Kiva- even the smallest donation helps.

Thanks for your time, your unceasing support of me, and your dedication to a most worthy cause.