I received an update from Kiva this morning from one of the loans I helped fund, Tienda Ronny, a going concern run by Elsy Santana Guayaquil, Ecuador:

Elsy emprendedora muy trabajadora. Su crédito lo invertirá en la compra de inventarios para atender a la comunidad de su sector. Ella espera en un futuro tener un negocio mas grande para así generar ingresos suficientes para el bienestar familiar. Su financiamiento en estos momentos es de mucha importancia para su visión, les agradece a toda la comunidad Kiva solidaria por la noble gestión en la lucha contra la pobreza.

I don't read the Espanyol so well, so I went over to Babelfish, still one of the most useful sites on the web to get a translation:

Enterprising Elsy very worker. Its credit will invest it in the purchase of inventories to take care of the community of its sector. It hopes in a future to have a great business but thus to generate sufficient income for the familiar well-being. Its financing at the moment is of much importance for its vision, is thankful to them to all shared in common the Kiva community by the noble management in the fight against the poverty.

Okay, so it's not a perfect translation, but I get the idea. It's very exciting for me to get updates like this. I can't wait to see more from Elsy and the several other entrepreneurs around the world whose businesses I'm now a part of.

I cannot express enough how import microfinance is fighting global poverty. The people who give out the Nobel prizes know this. They just presented Muhammed Younis, the founder of microfinance from Bangladesh with the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

It's really simple to get involved. Just go kiva.org and sign up. And remember this is not a donation or grant or a gift of any kind. This is loan to responsible business and you will be giving the money with the expectation that your loan will be repaid. You won't earn interest, but you will earn a tremendous amount of good will and feeling that even a little effort can go long, long way.