Family history across the seas

If no man is an island, then caring what happens in poorer places and countries is important. It’s easy sometimes to feel there’s little you can do to help “solve” world problems. However, there is one strategy that we can all contribute to, according to our means, and that is Kiva. I’ve talked about this scheme often here and especially our team within Kiva, Genealogists for Families, which was started in September 2011 by Judy Webster, a highly respected, long-term Queensland professional genealogist.

We are now up to 301 members and have made 5,484 loans totalling $144,425.

Kiva loans are just that – loans – not hand outs or donations. They help people to achieve their goals through micro-finance lending. As they pay their money back, you the lender can choose whether to re-lend or withdraw your cash. You decide where you wish to lend and for what purpose. 

In our family we made a conscious decision when we joined GFF that we’d build up our loans so when retirement came along we’d have a portfolio in which the loans repayments would keep on funding new projects. We’ve focused our loans predominantly on African or Asian countries. You might choose quite different countries.

In this small way the Genealogists for Families team feels we’re making a difference to people less fortunate than ourselves.

If you’d like to join us, why not leave a comment and I can send you a link to join.  In the meantime, you can learn more here: the little video about Pedro explains the difference it can make to other families however far away they live from you.