At long last I got around to making a new Kiva loan! (check out my other loans here).  And I’m pretty excited about this one!  It had been getting hard to find actual makers to lend to, but recently there seems to have been an influx so this time it was pretty easy.  But I was extra happy to find a maker who is making traditional craft for local use.

Señora Teresa is dedicated to the sale of jewelry on credit in the zone of Pampahasi. She has performed this activity for three years. She is very well known in the area and the orders that she fills are for craft jewelry for ladies who wear the traditional clothing, since they use large jewels for their hats, the fastening on their cloaks, rings and large earrings. She has some complete sets of jewels that are very pretty and expensive, all bathed in gold. She buys the jewels and later sells them in her jewelry shop.
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The loan will be invested in the purchase of rings and earrings, since she has orders for a festival that is held each year in the zone of Pampahasi. The jewels are used traditionally for the dances of the Morenada or Dances of the Dark, which is a folkloric Bolivian dance where the dancers disguise themselves in black adorned with prominent characteristics and the celebrants use these jewels for adorning their hats and to fasten their cloaks. Señora Teresa this very grateful to Emprender and Kiva for the confidence shown her in granting the loan.

Sounds like an amazing festival, I’d love to go check it out sometime!

My loan was counted towards the Etsy.com Handmade lending team, which is starting to make a bit of impression in the Kiva community.  We now have 94 members and over $6000 in loans.  Still a way to go to catch up to the Athiest Team that has over $2million in loans!  Any Etsy peeps out there wanna join us and help top the 100 member mark?

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Since I last made a loan the Etsy Lending Team has got more active and there’s a number of regular lenders boosting up our lending numbers.  We’ve just hit $4000 in loans!  Are you an etsy seller and a kiva lender?  Come join the team

My latest loan was a little hard to find.  I’ve noticed there’s a lot less makers on  Kiva and a definite increase in people selling cheap mass produced products.  This makes me quite sad to be honest.  I thought Kiva was about reducing the need for sweatshop economies..

Regardless, I did find the Morales family in Barranquilla, Colombia.  They make and sell a range of things to help their family prosper including hand made shoes, jewelry and clothing.

So give them a wave people, and wish them luck!

And for those of you out there still looking for last minute christmas ideas, consider a kiva gift voucher!  It’s a great last minute gift idea and the recipient gets to chose the person(s) to lend to.  Go on, make a difference!

Happy festive season everyone and see you in the next decade.

xox

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Maria is an amazing embroiderer and needed some start up capital to buy some supplies so she could make some of her amazing clothes to sell to tourists. This photo shows Maria and some of her amazing work.

So 12 months down the track, Maria has paid back her loan and I’m reinvesting the money.

This time I decided to go a bit closer to home and find someone I could support in the Pacific Islands. I found a woman called Janet who is from Samoa. Janet is a printmaker and uses the traditional elei style printing. Janet wants to turn what has been a hobby into a business. And she had such a cool tshirt, I had to pick her!

So hopefully my loan will help her. At the time of posting, Janet needs another US$250 for her loan. So please consider supporting her.

This is called Mutual Aid. Not Colonial Aid. Not Corrupt Government Aid. Not Missionary Aid. Not Celebrity Ego Enhancing Aid. Rather, Actual Aid.

So 12 months ago I said I’d find another Maria. This time I’ll say that in 12 months time, I’ll find another Janet.

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