KUA KIVA Club Invests

“The KUA KIVA club has been here for years, and I’ve been involved since my freshman year,” says co-club leader Jessie ’17, from Hong Kong. She explains, “KIVA is a micro-lending system. There’s people that need money who will create a project on the KIVA website. We will lend them money and once they finish the project, they pay us back interest-free."
 
The KUA Chapter of KIVA raises money throughout the year through various fundraising campaigns. “We sold candy-grams around the holidays to raise money for our lending account.  Then as a group we will pick people to lend money to through KIVA” explains Jessie.  
 
When asked why this type of work is more appealing than simply raising money and donating to people in need, Jessie said, “I really like the idea that we have money and can lend it to help people who are looking to grow a business, go to school, or feed their family in a sustainable way. It’s a cycle . . . after they pay us back we can then use that money to help another person.”
 
The club has a protocol they follow to decide which projects to fund. She continued, “We mostly pick projects where the borrowers already have half of the budget for the entire project. We want to pick the ones that we know will work so that we will be paid back.” The group recently loaned money to seed a small store. Their loan allowed the business owners to purchase CD’s to sell. Jessie and co-club leader, Zulal ’17, presented at All School Meeting, and showed examples of 20 other projects that KUA’s KIVA club funded. Their loans varied between $25 and $100.
 
Since 2009, the KIVA club has raised $3,211, and invested $6,050 in loans to fund 60 individual projects in 28 countries. 97% of their loans have been paid back in full. They are currently looking to invest an additional $2,343.  
 
Keep an eye out for upcoming KIVA fundraisers and stay tuned for more news from the Hilltop.
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