Plan "B"

Mrs. Sokha is a 26 year old mother of one who lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (one of the poorest countries in the world). She makes her living by tailoring clothing and makes about $3 per day. She's looking to buy a plot of land where she can grow mangos for some extra income to someday build a new house for her family and offer her children a higher level of education.

She sought help from an organization called kiva (http://www.kiva.org/), who connects people like them to people who would be willing to give a micro loan with little or no interest. So, here's where I'm going with this...

One of my life long goals has been to bring the 1 million poorest people on the planet to self-sufficiency. I think if more Americans and people throughout the world who can afford it thought this way, we could make poverty a thing of the past. This had always just been a pipe dream for me though. I don't have the resources to organize the planting of crops for a million people or the time to deal with all of the logistics of such an undertaking. Microloans, on the other hand, are an excellent way of "sharing the wealth" with others whose life can be changed with a loan as small as $100. Did you hear me? Their lives can be changed with $100.

Now granted, $100 isn't chump change for me either, but if I were missing it, I wouldn't be ruined. And an extra $100 wouldn't drastically change my world. So, I've decided to throw in my Franklin and do some good in the world. This isn't the same as those random emails you get asking for money in order to unlock millions in some vault somewhere. It's not like those eBay auctions where people are begging for money for some operation. It's helping with an organization who has their partners go through due diligence to ensure that the people who really need the money are getting it at lower interest rates than they could otherwise, or without interest at all!

P.S. Per the UN, the 50 poorest countries in the world are:

Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, East Timor, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia