celebrating an anniversary

Last month marked my ninth anniversary as a Nerdfighter of Kiva.
Within a year, Kiva had one million supporters, people just like me, wanting to help others through a crowdsourcing platform.
Today, in celebration, I have made another three loans, this time with each of my $25 antes being matched by Hitachi, in a special bid to help during this time of pandemic.
(Get my little joke?
Maybe you need to play poker to understand!)

The first loan was to Jacinta in Timor-Leste.
The 33-year-old entrepreneur had asked for the loan to help buy additional supplies such as wood, chickens, fresh fish and other stuff to sell at her small food stall near the school.
Here's what I said about my reason for choosing her.
"I liked that she was supplying healthy snacks and food to school kids on their way home.

I am glad that my loan to her was matched so her goal will be reached sooner!"
Hussein, a musician in Palestine, requested a loan to purchase instruments for his band.
Given that I enjoyed the Savannah VOICE Festival for the last two weeks, and in memory of a guitarist who recently died, my first money in the 'entertainment' sector went for this one.

The third being the charm, I selected this one without hardly reading her bio.
What drew my attention to Fe'ofa'aki of Tonga was this.
"I simply have to like someone with a name more strange than mine!
Plus, I like that she is older and still obviously loving life - like I am!"
I liked, too, that she weaves natural-fiber mats.
Having slept on tatami mats in Okinawa, I know how important they are to clean living spaces!
I must confess to an underlying mission in my three choices: I deliberately went in search of loans to business types and countries that were something different.
My portfolio on Kiva previously reflected that my 23 loans had been to 16 countries for 17 types of businesses.
Now, how about a little perspective on that?
Kiva supplies loans to 75 countries for 163 business types.
I knew I could do better, just as I'd done with Kickstarter.
So, now, I've added three more loans as well as three more countries and three more types of business activity to the portfolio I've amassed.
(smile!)
That means I have made 26 loans, for 20 business types, in 19 countries -
making a total of six hundred fifty dollars in loans, but only actually using two hundred sixty-six dollars to do so.
That's because I tend to wait for the loans to be paid back before I lend to someone else, unless there is a special 'matching opportunity', as there was today.

Which countries have benefited from my money to their citizens?
Bolivia
Burkina Faso
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Fiji
Ghana
Guatemala
Jordan
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon
Malawi
Nicaragua
Pakistan
Philippines
Samoa
Tajikistan
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Vietnam

What business activities have I supported?
Agriculture
Clothing Sales
Dairy
Entertainment
Farming
Fish Selling
Food Production/Sales
Food Stall
Fuel/Firewood
Grocery Store
Higher education costs
Knitting
Laundry
Perfumes
Personal Expenses
Poultry
Primary/secondary school costs
Retail
Tailoring
Weaving

In the future, as the other loans I have out there, as well as these new ones, are repaid, again supplying me with $25 aliquots to lend, I'll seek to expand the corners of the world, and of the world's economy, that those dollars support.
That's definitely a worthy goal as I head toward my decade anniversary of being a Nerdfighter of Kiva, fighting suck!
(smile!)