Kiva

New Faces

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 554 Comments

Three things this today:

Minnesota State Primaries

If you live in Minnesota you have an opportunity to participate in the State Primary. The biggies on the ballot are US Representative and US Senator. There were also school board and judicial nominations on my particular ballot.

Another Thank You

Thank you to a new Kiva lending buddy. Since I posted my initial challenge there have been three people who have been willing, able and wanting to participate. And in even more exciting Kiva-related news, I’m going to start lending money as part of the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious lending team. As part of a lending team I lend money as an individual, but I can count each loan towards the impact of one team. So, this is an atheism visibility project. Right now the atheist team is ranked 2nd of all teams on Kiva. Guess who just slightly ahead of us? Yup – Kiva Christians.

Anyway, our latest loan was made to Rose from Murang’a, Kenya. Rose is a mom, with one of her three children still in school. She is a tailor and farmer, growing produce and raising dairy animals. She wants use this loan to buy a chuff cutter, which is used to cut feed into smaller pieces for the animals she raises, and I guess makes life way easier. You can read her full story here.

A New Face At Biodork

I am very excited to announce that a new regular column will be appearing on Biodork twice a week. Meet Ellen Bulger!

Ellen is a life-long atheist – well, since the age of 11 – and a regular Freethought Blogs reader and commenter. She describes herself as a naturalist and appreciator of entomology and mollusks. She is a freelance writer and prolific photographer; you can browser her collection of over 22,000 photos over at Flickr. Ellen wants to show the world that we can find joy and beauty in this world without believing in superstition or gods.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Ellen will be guest blogging her photographs and writings. Her first piece will go up later this afternoon. – Welcome, Ellen!

New Faces
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Thank You

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 381 Comments

Earlier this week I invited you to join me on the microlending website, Kiva. I asked that if you were willing, able and wanted to join after learning more about the institution, to join through my personal invitation link so that I could receive $25 Kiva bonuses. Two of you took me up on my invitation, resulting in $50 worth of loan money that I was able to turn around tonight. Here’s who we’re funding:

 This is Ruth Del Carmen from Guasmo, Ecuador. She owns her own house, and since separating from her husband she is raising two children on her own. She runs a restaurant and sells cosmetics to supplement her income. She is planning on using this loan to buy chairs, table and a display case for her businesses. You can read her full story here.

Meet the Nuestro Sueño Group from Temuco, Chile. Group loans can be a good investment because members of a community come together to borrow, and have group support and peer pressure to make timely repayments. Members of Nuestro Sueño are planning on using their loans to purchase products for their individual businesses, which include food, clothing, crafts, and firewood sales.

Thanks for making these two loans possible, my Kiva loan buddies.

If you have an interest in joining Kiva, I invite you to join through my link here – Kiva is still giving $25 bonuses out!

Thank You

6 O’Clock BS: Kiva Bonuses!

Brianne Bilyeu, , 367 Comments

You may know that the Hubby and I support the microlending program, Kiva.

Here’s a cartoon from the Kiva website. It draws (literally) a very high-level picture  of how Kiva works:

So yeah. Pretty cool stuff. The Hubby and I have been re-investing two $25 loans for a couple of years now, but we’d like to get to a place where we can do more. We’ve been part of loans to three people. Their stories are linked below if you’re interested.

  • Nidal – A shoe salesman from Gaza, Palestine
  • Ansu – A shoe salesman from Bo, Sierra Leone
  • Gina – A hog farmer from Linglingay, Angadanan, Philippines

If this is a program that want to get involved with – maybe you’ve been thinking about getting involved for a while – how about now? Because if you do it now AND if you do it through me, I get a $25 bonus from Kiva that I can invest in a new Kiva loan. Let me be clear: I get a $25 bonus for every person who joins up through me – no limits until the bonus money runs out site-wide. That’s potentially a lot of money that one could put to good use!

This is an offer that all existing Kiva members can take advantage of, so if you know a friend who does Kiva and you’d rather they get an extra Kiva bonus – do it. No hard feelings. Honest. Girl Scouts honor. I believe in Kiva, and I think you should get involved if you can and if you think it’s a good program.

But just in case you do want to join Kiva through me and wouldn’t mind helping me and the Hubby earn some bonus loan money, click below to be redirected to Kiva’s website and my personal sign-up page:

Join Kiva and Biodork to Help Change Lives

6 O’Clock BS: Kiva Bonuses!

6 O'Clock BS: Kiva Bonuses!

Brianne Bilyeu, , 210 Comments

You may know that the Hubby and I support the microlending program, Kiva.

Here’s a cartoon from the Kiva website. It draws (literally) a very high-level picture  of how Kiva works:

So yeah. Pretty cool stuff. The Hubby and I have been re-investing two $25 loans for a couple of years now, but we’d like to get to a place where we can do more. We’ve been part of loans to three people. Their stories are linked below if you’re interested.

  • Nidal – A shoe salesman from Gaza, Palestine
  • Ansu – A shoe salesman from Bo, Sierra Leone
  • Gina – A hog farmer from Linglingay, Angadanan, Philippines

If this is a program that want to get involved with – maybe you’ve been thinking about getting involved for a while – how about now? Because if you do it now AND if you do it through me, I get a $25 bonus from Kiva that I can invest in a new Kiva loan. Let me be clear: I get a $25 bonus for every person who joins up through me – no limits until the bonus money runs out site-wide. That’s potentially a lot of money that one could put to good use!

This is an offer that all existing Kiva members can take advantage of, so if you know a friend who does Kiva and you’d rather they get an extra Kiva bonus – do it. No hard feelings. Honest. Girl Scouts honor. I believe in Kiva, and I think you should get involved if you can and if you think it’s a good program.

But just in case you do want to join Kiva through me and wouldn’t mind helping me and the Hubby earn some bonus loan money, click below to be redirected to Kiva’s website and my personal sign-up page:

Join Kiva and Biodork to Help Change Lives

6 O'Clock BS: Kiva Bonuses!

Winner of the FWP Contest Announced

Brianne Bilyeu, 447 Comments

Congratulations to MADELINE for gathering the most votes for her Butt-Sushi Dilemma in the First World Problems Contest against four other very humorous stories!

Madeline is the winner of a shiny new $25 Kiva.org gift certificate!

Thanks to everyone who contributed a FWP and to everyone who stopped by to vote.  You guys are awesome – it rawked my world to see all the activity here at Biodork over the past week.

Winner of the FWP Contest Announced