Kiva

I heard about this great website from a friend of mine and I checked it all out today. It is such an amazing idea! I must share it with you. What you do is you go to this website and you can see profile of people from developing countries that are needing loans to start their own business. You can get information about them and the business they are wanting to start. Then you can make a loan to them. What happens is several people make loans to them so they get the full loan amount they need to start their business. Then they pay everyone one back over a certain period of time. Once the money is paid back to your account you can either take the money back or you can make another loan. The money is all managed by the organization and during the repayment period you get updates about the person you loaned to and how their business is developing. It's such a simple yet powerful way to help people!

What I love about this is that it really is a way to help people help themselves. So often you hear people say that people just want handouts. But I don't think that is true. I think the majority of the people in this world want to take care of themselves and their families. I think people want to work and provide for themselves. This a way to help them make that happen!

So I looked through all the profiles and I choose to lead $50.00 to a gal in Mexico that is opening a grocery store. She is close to my age and has a couple kids. She only needed $950.00 in total so I'm thinking that only a few more people will need to donate to get her the loan so she can get to work. I'm anxious to see how well she does.

I think this would be a great idea for parents to do with their kids. You can teach them about giving to others, developing a business, and about another culture. And with the updates along the way it's a great way to connect to the person you are helping. Heck maybe one day you can take a family trip and eat at the little restaurant you helped get off the ground. Pretty awesome if you ask me.

So please go visit Kiva and let me know what you think. I'd love to know who you help!

Jessie

Shout Outs

I gave this shout out on my other blog Making Of A Mom earlier today. But I think this blog is so cool I've got to repeat it!

Leah is a young girl that is trying to gather the same amount of pennies as their are orphans in Africa. If you know anything about Africa you will know that there are a lot of orphans so she needs a lot of pennies! She has a great blog and gives weekly updates about the number of pennies she has colected so far. Make sure you stop by and pay her a visit at her blog change4orphans.com!

Jessie

The Shoe Mission

Well last week I told you about Yoel, the little guy trying to get shoes for the people in his village in Ethiopia. Well Yoel is making great progress. His goal now is to get 200 pairs of crocs/clogs to take with him to Ethiopia in a couple months to give to all the people in his village. I asked you all to help by sending the shoes to Yoel. Several of you have done so and I thought you ought to see the happy guy that is opening all of your packages as they arrive.



If you feel moved to help Yoel accomplish his shoe mission you can send the crocs to Yoel Lees, 922 Bradford Greens CT NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525. He is accepting all colors and sizes of crocs.

Thanks for considering it!

Jessie

Shoes

**********************UPDATE**********************

So far I have ordered 4 pairs of shoes.
My Aunt Betty has ordered 5 pairs of shoes.
Let's keep it going folks. Let's help Yoel help others!

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This story really touched my heart and I have to share it with you all. I participate in many adoption groups online and have met some wonderful people.

Lyvone is one of those people. Lyvone and her husband have 8 children. Yes 8! In the last year they brought home a boy and a girl from Ethiopia. While they were there they met two other children that touched their hearts. So in a couple of months they will be traveling back to Ethiopia to bring home two more children. Yes they will have 10 children!

They asked their 8.5 year old son Yoel what he would like to take to his village when they went back to visit and bring the other children home. This is what Yoel decided in Lyvone's words!

Yoel thought very hard and seriously about it and decided that since his feet are beginning to heal that all the kids in his village needed shoes too. I asked him what kind of shoes was he thinking of giving and he went to our shoe closet (which is large, with 8 kids!) and he pondered which shoes would be the best for the rocky and often wet conditions in their village. He decided, all on his own, that Crocs would be the best because they are durable (my word) and washable. He said in his cute little accent, "good shoes, wet okay, dry good, no socks if hot, yes sock if cold". I stood by the closet crying, knowing how blessed he feels to have 4 pair of shoes of his own.

How can we not bring 100 pair of shoes to this village? We were planning on bringing 5 suitcases of donations again anyway. That is 20 pair per suitcase and the shoes are very lightweight. We are hoping to hear from the Croc manufacturer soon about reduced pricing. So, along with our son and daughter we have started a 'Socks and Crocs for Ethiopia' campaign in our area. We just received an email from another adoptive family that traveled when we did, to pick up their new daughters, and they have already begun to receive shoe donations and even monetary donations to help us purchase the shoes and socks.

If anyone would like to contribute for this village by purchasing a pair of Crocs or a package of Socks, they can be sent to: Yoel Lees, 922 Bradford Greens CT NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525.

I would encourage you all to consider sending a pair of crocs his way! Isn't that amazing!!!

I went online to www.payless.com I found their brand of crocs and ordered 4 pairs. Right now they are buy one get one half off. So for four pairs and the shipping it was right around 50 bucks. So worth it in my opinion. You can have them shipped right to Yoel that way. One pair costs about $12.00.

Let me know if you decided to send some shoes! I'd love to know how many pairs the group of people I love send!

Jessie