CoolPeopleCare®

We stumbled upon Kiva.org a few weeks ago and added their link to our home page.

Their mission is amazing. They are working to financially enable entrepreneurs in developing countries by connecting those that have with those that do not.

And the "those that have" that I'm talking about are people like you and me.

Their lending program is such that even small donation amounts of as little as $25 go to people like Patricia Ibarra Calderon of Mexico and make a real difference. All she needs to get her business venture off the ground is $375 and she's over half way there.

I don't think we can even begin to fathom the power in what Kiva.org president Primal Shah calls "microfinance."

"In this way, people like you can help provide affordable working capital for the world's poor -- money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc. -- empowering them to start a business and earn their way out of poverty," said Shah in a recent interview.

Can you imagine dripping the final drop in the small bucket of a developing country's innovative and hard-working entrepreneur so that they can work their way out of poverty? For the price of a dinner for two at your local pizza joint, you can make a difference.

And this is the same principal that we here at CoolPeopleCare.org are working to uplift in respect to individual's time.

It isn't necessary that you spend an entire day, or week, or lifetime digging ditches, building wheelchair ramps, staffing soup kitchen lines -- but it is necessary that you spend some time pitching in in your community.

Which is where "5 minutes of caring" comes in. In the same way a small $25 loan can bring real change to an entrepreneur halfway around the world, your five minutes at your computer can bring change to someone or something somewhere in this world.

If it's money you have, click on over to Kiva.org and give freely. If it's time you have, try out our ARCHIVES for some sweat-free volunteer time, and know that you're making a difference, 5 minutes at a time.