Kitchens of the World is a cookbook that has been put together by the Canadian Council for the blind that has had participation from over 100 embassies and over 150 professional photographers.  In addition to being just a cookbook, Kitchens of the World contains fascinating information on the location, population, languages, and food influences and origins of each country, allowing you to really get a feel for the meals you are cooking.
Not only is this a great cookbook (I just ordered mine!), but if you buy it between today and Tuesday August 17th, the proceeds will be donated to Kiva (minus a 5% processing fee). Learn more about entrees from around the world and help out a microfinance organization, it doesn’t get better than this!

Kiva recently announced the revamp of their new Kiva High School website which is a US-based network of microfinance clubs that enables high school students to organize themselves to spread the word about microfinance.  Kiva has been educating students for a while, but it seems like I’ve seen more and more of a push more recently.  A year ago it was rare that I would see anything being done by high school students, whereas now I hear about a student doing something remarkable all the time.  With High school chapters around the country, Kiva High School allows students to raise money to battle poverty, not with sympathy, but with business transactions rooted in mutual dignity.  KHS chapters can now share success stories, collaborate on fundraising ideas, use youtube and powerpoint presentations, as well as event ideas.  Additionally, there will now be a monthly newsletter that will feature chapters across the country who are making a difference.

In addition to KHS, there is also Campus Kiva, which follows a similar model, but is more geared toward university students. Campus Kiva brings microfinance to a whole new level by giving students the opportunity to play a direct role in changing lives with a mission to educate students about the potential impact of microfinance and to encourage micro-lending through Kiva’s Lending Teams.

Kiva continues to be an innovator in helping expand the reaches of microfinance.  By educating kids at an early age, they are planting the seed that will hopefully help alleviate poverty in the future.  I think that the next step should be reaching out to teachers.  Although it is amazing that so many students are getting involved, I think that if Kiva targets teachers more, they will be able to reach students at a quicker pace.  If microfinance can become part of the curriculum in schools, it would be quite the milestone.

Last month I wrote about some spam that I had seen hit a microfinance platform, well now I am seeing it in another form.  Yesterday I was going through my emails, when I saw an email that I thought was from Kiva, but it just didn’t look right.  I decided to cautiously open it just to be sure.  The email turns out to be from a company called “Kiva Micro Financial Loan Company.”  Once seeing the details of the email, it was obvious that it was a scam that was phishing for information.  In my case, as with many I am sure, since I was opening it with gmail, I received warning that I should be cautious opening the email.  However,I’m sure there are many people who don’t have the same security settings that I do, and might be getting caught by this.  It is a shame seeing scams hit the microfinance world.  Most people don’t get caught by them in this day and age, but the scammers will keep trying to impersonate lenders and organizations to trick people, and all it takes is a couple of the wrong people to get scammed and it will make microfinance look bad.  If anybody sees any other form of Microfinance scams, please share them with the group.

Kiva has been chosen as one of four finalists in the Sam’s Club “Giving Made Simple” competition for a chance to win a $1 Million dollar grant.
With this grant, Kiva will multiply the impact by 10 by generating approximately $10 Million more in loans from the Internet community, to help 25,000 entrepreneurs in the US and around the world.
To help support Kiva, send this link to anybody that you know with a Sam’s Club membership so that they can vote.  You can vote daily up through May 2nd.
To view the full contest details, check out Sam’s Club the “Giving Made Simple” competition.

Last December, Tongal held a competition where people created inspiring and creative videos to educate people how the Kiva loan process works.  Here were the top 5 winners:

1: Erik Andersson – “The Pedro Story”
2: Andre Ferreira – “You Too Can Help”
3: Kieran Ball – “From Desk to Door: Kiva’s Microloan Delivery Service”
4: Shelley Cryan – “Change a Life with a Kiva Loan”
5: Andrew Huffaker – “Kiva – Loans That Change Lives”

The contest is not over yet.  There is still a competition where the winners can still receive the “Most Viewed” Prize, so make sure that you pass along your favorite videos.  The contest lasts until 1/31

On October 12th, Kiva.org had its fourth birthday.  Has it really been that long since Kiva first popped up?  I remember hearing about Kiva about three years ago and I feel like it was just yesterday.  Matt Flannery, the CEO and co-founder of Kiva, posted some of his thoughts about what Kiva has accomplished so far and what it plans in the future:

As I write this, Kiva is on the verge of surpassing the $100M mark in terms of total loans sent to entrepreneurs through our website. $100 million is an impressive number by anyone’s standards, but Kiva has never been about the numbers. Ultimately Kiva is about stories and the connections between people that are forged when those stories are shared.

Kiva started out as an experiment in an Eastern Ugandan village five years ago. It was a quite personal attempt to convey the hope that we witnessed during a trip to Africa. That trip changed our view of poverty and how we can relate to it. We felt that, surely, if everyone could have experienced what we experienced, they would want to get involved too. With the spread of technology, why couldn’t everyone get involved?

Since that time, we’ve been working tirelessly to make that dream a reality. We’ve traveled all over the world and made friends most everywhere. We’ve witnessed an alarming amount of poverty. We’ve also seen a universal work ethic, creativity and entrepreneurialism that reside in the world’s working poor. It is that spirit that has made Kiva possible…

Read the rest of Matt’s thoughts on the Kiva blog.

[via Joel Carlman on Kiva Stories from the Field]

[via SoCap2009]

This is just a quick reminder that the Kiva Monthly Community Call is taking place tomorrow:

When: The call is scheduled for Wednesday, August 19th at 2 pm US Pacific time.
Dial in US: 866-740-1260 Access Code: 6415483
Dial in (Outside US): +1 303-248-0285 Access Code: 6415483

[via Causemopolitan]