A single mother of one, Alexandra Ramirez has been hard at work trying to make ends meet since her husband left her a few months after the birth of her son. She started a small business out of the home she and her mother live in. They sell sodas and juices to the local community. Her mother tends to the business during the day, while Alexandra travels around the community selling clothing and shoes. Now, Alexandra is looking for a loan of $375 to purchase shoes at wholesale quantities.

This is the one of hundreds of stories on Kiva.org. Unfortunately for Alexandra she has no credit history on the site. Although with a loan request of only $375 I’m sure that someone will be willing to loan her the money required to grow her business. The majority of the loans on the site are similar to Alexandra’s in that they are for basic necessity items like food, drink, and clothing.

According to their website:

Kiva is using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.
I highly recommend checking out Kiva.org, and possibly lending some money to struggling entrepreneurs.