Liew's Views

Clean water is a privilege.

We often forget this because most of us living in the “western world” are so lucky.
I’ll bet that 99.99% of the people reading this (with maybe a .01% margin of error) have access to clean, safe water right now.

But what about those who don’t have clean, safe water – or water at all?
How many miles did you walk to get that glass of water?
How much time did you sacrifice to buy a bottle of it?
Do you monitor your water consumption when you shower or wash your hands?
Do you ever have to think about whether your water is disease-infested?

Clean water is a privilege. But it should be a RIGHT.

So what can you do?

“There will never be enough charity to bring safe water to everyone”, but there are sustainable solutions.

Got some extra cash? Want to empower people through financing?

So I just made my first Kiva loans.
I figure…if I can afford to eat out as much as I do, and spend unnecessary (and sometimes copious) amounts on entertainment, drinks, and travel…I can afford to lend money to someone who needs it more than I do.

Enter Kiva.

I just lent money to 3 individual entrepreneurs from 3 different countries.
One sells books and comics in Ecuador.
One raises guinea pigs in Peru.
One farms bananas in the Philippines.

Over time, they will repay their loans.
I will then receive my initial investment back.
Then I will re-lend it to other entrepreneurs who need funding.

You may have some questions on how this whole operation works.
I can’t explain it like kiva.org can, so I’ve pulled some information from their website with links below.

I hope you’ll join the loaner movement.
[if you already aren't a part of it :)]

What is Kiva?

Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Learn more

How Kiva Works:

1) Field partners approve and disperse a microloan to an entrepreneur in their community
2) The entrepreneur’s profile and story is uploaded onto kiva.org
3) Lenders (potentially you) browse through kiva.org and choose someone to lend to using paypal or a credit card
4) Kiva provides the loan to the field partners
5) The entrepreneur repays their loan over time
6) Lenders get their money back and can re-lend to another entrepreneur, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds to their PayPal accounts

Learn more

Starting October 8, 2009, MANGO released a second edition of Paulo Coelho’s solidarity T-shirts in 90 countries.

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian novelist most known for his book The Alchemist, and in September 2007, he was named a Messenger of Peace to the United Nations.

Although the shirts were out in October, I was late to purchase them since I like to wait until I have list of things to buy before hitting the mall. I’m not the kind of person to shop for a couple of shirts one day and go back the next weekend to pick up a pair of jeans….I’ve left my mall-rat days behind!

Well, I finally braved the mall (during the Christmas shopping season, which probably isn’t the best idea I’ve had) and found what I was looking for.

Coelho’s messages are uplifting and inspiring, and I am a believer in the words printed on these t-shirts (even if they are hard to believe during difficult times).

Another great thing about these shirts? Coelho’s t-shirt revenues (close to 40% of the retail price), will go to the Paulo Coelho Institute, which takes care of 430 children in Rio de Janeiro, among other projects. The Institute is a non-profit-making institution financed exclusively by the author’s royalties.

I’m a sucker for inspirational messages and companies/products that give a portion of revenues to non-profit causes. But I don’t think that it’s a bad thing. :)

Links:
Paulo Coelho’s blog entry on his MANGO shirts
MANGO’s blog entry on their Paulo Coelho shirts
Follow Paulo Coelho on Twitter