Chris Baggott's Guide to Blogging

Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware in Kenya talking Kiva.org

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 to focus on Poverty. I wanted to take a moment to talk about how everyone can help in an easy & inexpensive way.   I'm sure you are familiar with the concepts behind micro-lending.

We are all learning the hard lesson this past couple of weeks here in the US that the availability of credit and free movement of cash is what gives individuals and a society the opportunity to be prosperous. No credit, no investment.   It's hard to believe how much we took this for granted.

Now imagine people who have never had access to such a system.   No matter what your dreams or aspirations were...no matter how hard you worked...without investment capital there is no way to ever move ahead or expand beyond what one might be able to produce with their own two hands.   Lack of Capital, not lack of desire is a cause of poverty for a huge population in this world.

What's amazing is how little capital is actually necessary to give industrious people in the developing world their start.   Look into it.   Last Christmas Compendium Blogware gave $100 gift Certificates for Kiva.org (a leading micro-lending portal) to all of our team.   All six of our immediate family were given Kiva gift certificates too (how many iPods does a kid need?)

Two amazing things happend...One, we were able to help a lot of people.   Our family made 22 loans to entrepenures from Kenya to Peru.    Another amazing thing?

Our portfolio grew by 10%! You can probably guess how this compares to my traditional stock portfolio over the past 12 months.   This is not only important work that makes a big difference in peoples lives....This is not charity, not a handout, but actually a fantastic investment.

Comments for Blog Action Day 2008 End Poverty

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 by kouji haiku:: i love kiva. :) am currently unable to make a donation though, so i put up its banner on my blog (as well as that of freerice and goodsearch). saw this post via the front page of blog action day. it's great that you're participating. :)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 by Rebeca Trautner:: this is an excellent idea, thank you!
Friday, October 17, 2008 by Gordon Milton:: I applaud your attempts and energy in trying to relieve poverty, especially in places like Kenya - my birth place and, although my current place of residence, my home. In my view, credit is the second biggest contributor to poverty - the first being ignorance. I think you would be well advised to read a copy of "The Creature From Jekyll Island" It's available on Amazon.com and it explains quite clearly how credit and debt are being used as a means of controlling everyone, includinging the developing world.
Friday, October 17, 2008 by Chris Baggott:: Thank you for your suggestion. I'll look on Amazon. I'm by no means an expert, just someone trying to help. It's so hard to get to the truth on so much of this. Heck, I was mentioning a consideration for a hybrid vehicle and had three people tell me how bad they were for the environment...?? Tough to sift out the truth sometimes. Thanks for your comment.
Friday, November 28, 2008 by Business Journal:: Nice blog dear i have really learn a lot from this blog thanks. This blog is very informative for me. I became very pleasure to read it.