I’ve been toying with the idea about micro-lending through Kiva for a couple years now, and with Christmas on the way I decided to finally take the plunge. This is something I can support: a butcher in Uganda who wants a loan to buy a cow :)

**Edit: Apparently the link to a given micro-loan applicant is not constant, so I've removed the banner. Again, a few things on the site that need some polish.**

I spent a good hour or more looking through the requests and to be honest a lot of them just don’t seem noteworthy. I don’t really want to support someone who is running a store so they can buy more pop to resell. Nor do I necessarily think it’s good for someone to request $1000 for a saw when it seems like the money will go to something else. There is a lack of properly-written scenarios on a whole and not enough clarity on what exactly the money will be used for.

Regardless, I'm planning on following this for a few months and making a loan every paycheque or two provided I can find something that seems worthwhile. I’ll post updates here whenever they happen.