Remember that time we thought we had problems? That time we had to do something (laundry) that we didn't want to do? Or that time our job was a total drag? Or something worse even, like when we got in a fender bender, were late to work, our boss gave us shit and we stressed out about it all for the rest of the day/week/month? Yes, we all have those problems, and they are totally valid. But if you're like me, then you also have a little voice in the back of your head that says: "Stop. You are very fortunate. These are not real problems." Now, I know everything is relative, and you can't compare, and blah blah blah blah blah. But I really find it useful to put my very first world problems into some context, get some perspective and elect to just get over it whenever possible. Part of that process always leads me to thinking about all of the people across planet Earth who weren't lucky enough to be born under the same lucky set of stars as me. Which is basically what led me to Kiva.org and Yesenia from Peru. Kiva.org is a micro-lending site that allows users to send donations of at least $25 towards loans for people all over the world. Its super simple. You find a borrower that you feel compelled to donate to, send Kiva $25, the borrower gets what they need to be able to live, work, and earn money; then they pay you back. SO EASY! Its so practical and lovely! Its helping someone buy a sewing machine so that they can support their family by making garments to sell. Or helping to pay for someone's farming equipment, or supplies to stock their store. For Yesenia it was a house "made out of stronger materials."
Yesenia is a single mother who sells potatoes in Nazca, Peru. She was requesting $550 to "make repairs to her house in order to improve her family's quality of life and to have a more comfortable life." Since that is basically the HausWitch mission statement it was definitely something I could get behind. So I sent my $25 and shortly thereafter Yesenia's loan was fully funded. YAY! So is this post all about how great I am for helping Yesenia? YES. Admire me and my generous soul! JUST KIDDING JUST KIDDING JUST KIDDING! No, this post is to talk about how helping Yesenia gave me the idea to start HausWitch The World. See, Kiva lets you have "teams" so that a bunch of people can join together and donate as a group. That way you can get a more people involved, track how much money the team raises, compete with other teams, and basically just do some good as a group. So I thought, maybe my amazing, gorgeous, fabulous, readers, clients and friends would like to join me and Team HausWitch and help some peeps have a cozier life. I personally am going to donate $50 a month for the rest of the year. I would like Team HausWitch to focus on housing-related loans, but if you join and something else attracts your attention BY ALL MEANS donate to that. Just donate! Also, if you're like, "Screw Team HausWitch, I'll just do it myself!" That's cool too! Just donate! Now, I know this model may not be perfect but I think the good outweighs the bad*. I like that we are lending money to help give people some agency in their own lives. Plus, Kiva has a 98.77% loan repayment rate so this is a way of really helping people get what THEY think they need in order to be successful in life. Here in the West we have student LOANS, Mortgage LOANS, small business LOANS, and various other ways of borrowing money to set ourselves up. Aren't we lucky? Everyone deserves a chance at that. So first up is Sandra in El Salvador. Sandra needs a bathroom! Her loan expires in ONE DAY! We can do it! Let's get Sandra a bathroom for crying out loud! The moon is in Capricorn and the Witches say "Be Patient". *In the interest of total transparency, if you want to read a critique of Kiva you can click here and for their response you can click here. I would also like to give a very special shout out to Kaitlyn Soligan for consulting on and researching this project with me.
