Poverty has a female face

As soon as the money comes in, it goes out. I've had enough repayment over the last month to be able to cover another $25 loan to someone in the developing world that needs a helping hand. This time around, I just chose the first person on the list, when I clicked on lend on the Kiva site. Usually, I sort the loan applicants by region and gender, giving to women in Africa. This time around, a woman in Juba, South Sudan, was at the top of the list, and saved me the sorting effort.

Agnes, to whom my $25 loan went to, is a mom with three kids and a husband, who is a soldier. She is looking to grow her charcoal selling business, with the hopes of using the additional profits to build a house. The loan is facilitated by BRAC, an NGO based in Bangladesh, operates a microfinance program in South Sudan, focusing on war refugees -- and already has 418 village organizations with more than 14,000 women members.

The $25 loan is a drop in the bucket of world's needs, but even while that bucket continues to grow larger to accommodate the increasing number of needy, I'm ever the optimist that my drop precipitates a torrent that will eventually cause that bucket to overflow. You can be a part of it. $25 is all it takes to start, and the money is only a loan. It's not a donation. You loan it, it's repaid, and you have the option of re-loaning it again -- and again, and again. Like I have. Currently, I have five loans in various stages of repayment -- and five that has already been repaid fully. Not a whole lot for sure, but they represent effort in the right direction.

in reference to:

"“The face of poverty is female,” she said, sketching the portrait of the typical poor African youth.“She is 18.5 years old. She lives in a rural area. She has dropped out of school. She is single, but is about to be married or be given in marriage to a man approximately twice her age. She will be the mother of six or seven kids in another 20 years,” said Ezekwesili, citing the findings of the latest edition of the annual World Bank publication, Africa Development Indicators (ADI)."
- Africa - In Africa, 'Poverty Has a Female Face' (view on Google Sidewiki)