Number 2: Give a Microloan

My friend Ron was the one who added Number 4: Give a Microloan to the list. I googled microloans and found Kiva, a non-profit organization and the world’s first online micro-lender.  So far, they have lent out $128,656,410 in 195 different countries. The average loan is about $395 and 82% of their loans have been made to women entrepreneurs. Sounded good to me. 

Next, I had to pick a continent and chose the Middle East. I clicked on female because I thought it would be great to help a Middle Eastern woman start a business but there were NO RESULTS in that search. Go figure. So I moved on to Africa. I figured I would pick an African country and take the opportunity to learn something… specifically their capital as well as the capitals of the surrounding countries for Number 42: Learn the capitals of all the countries of the world.

I picked Togo, which is a small West African nation that was part of an area known as "The Slave Coast" in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries because the Europeans raided it for slaves. In the 19th century it became a German colony and eventually a French one. It used to be called Togoland but in 1914, they changed it to just Togo. 

Togo gained its independence from France 50 years ago this month. French is still their official language, but because there are 40 different ethnicities, many other languages are spoken. 6.7 million people live in Togo and about half of the population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.

Other fun facts? They love to play soccer and qualified for the World Cup in 2006 but didn’t get very far. Approximately 29% of the population is Christian, 20% are Muslim and 51% have indigenous beliefs. There are only about four physicians for every 100,000 people. The politics of Togo…complicated. Struggling to transition to democracy through coup d’états and rigged elections…the latest one this past March.

Togo’s capital is Lomé and Togo is located between Ghana (capital: Accra) and Benin (capital: Porto Novo.) It borders Burkina Faso (capital: Ouagadougou) to the north.

The entrepreneur I chose is Aminetou Moussa. She is also turning 40 this year. She is married and has five children and she’s been selling charcoal for seven years and will use her loan to resupply her charcoal stock. Which means she’ll buy fourteen big sacks, twenty medium sacks, and ten small sacks of charcoal. She’ll then divide it into individually sized portions and sell them out of recycled tomato tins. The new supply will make sure she can meet her neighbors’ need for charcoal, which is used for cooking and heating.

That was easy. And fulfilling. Thanks, R. 

www.kiva.com

The minimum amount you can loan to an entrepreneur is $25. 

Just do it. My friend Ellie just did. And Kazlauskabot.