So Many Options

I discovered today that my Kiva entrepreneurs have repaid enough of their loans for me to make another loan of $25. There were 322 loan requests listed. With so many options, how do you decide? The Kiva site says that 18,318 lenders made a loan this week, 1 loan every 12 seconds. Clearly, a lot of people have gone through a similar decision making process.

Naturally, I wanted to make sure that my loan would impact children...On Purpose. That's easy because most of the entrepreneurs seem to have children. My 14 previous loans seem pretty evenly distributed between men, women, and groups, so I must have considered that criteria before. If it seems the purpose of the loan is to look after some basic needs like food, shelter, or clothing, then that appeals to me. Still...there are 322 people to choose from.

Kiva offers a map view so I can see where in the world my money has gone so far. I started to eliminate countries that already show on my map and began to focus on South America. It's a good sized continent and I had only made 2 loans there.

A finally decided to lend to this young woman in Ecuador.

Maria Fernanda Aguiar Guevara is 20 years old, single, and lives with her parents and ten siblings. Altogether there are eleven children, six daughters and five sons. (I'd say that qualifies!)
Maria helps her parents with their farm. Her family grows corn, potatoes, lima beans, peas, and other crops in small quantities. They recently planted corn at the end of January and expect to harvest it in the summer. In addition, they buy and sell products at the fairs in San Miguel on Thursdays and Sundays. The difficulties of having to work in the field involve having to deal with disease and drought that impact the crops.
 
Maria is requesting a loan to purchase farming supplies. In the future, she wants to become a professional accountant and continue to help parents with their farm.

In her spare time, Maria enjoys listening to romantic music and spending time with her parents.