Paying It Forward

December 2008 I became involved with KIVA which is a micro-lending organization directed to help various people in their pursuit of financing their home businesses to provide a better life for themselves and their families. I started a "group" based on one of my favorite concepts and that is "Paying It Forward." The group consisted of myself and a picture that I had taken of a Norfolk Botanical Garden scene and uploaded to the KIVA site. All my contributions to KIVA then were directed to the PAYING IT FORWARD group.

The next month I had a dream of a lady and lo and behold she was my first team member. Since that time I promoted her to the co-leader spot and we made some definition changes of why we do what we do and invited others to join if they so wish. Currently 15 months later or so we have at least 14 members from all over the world. The group as a altruistic whole has contributed in excess of 200 loans to various lendees.

The group is gearing up for April 25 because it has been labeled PAYING IT FORWARD day or some such title. There is a consensus building to make an additional contribution that day to someone asking for a loan. I find that well and good and I hope to participate in that myself considering that I expect to be employed by that time and able to donate part of my earnings to new loans.

Katie Couric did a news piece on the concept of "Paying It Forward". It seems that Harvard and the University of California scientists have proved the concept of people helping people causes people down the food chain of this helpfulness to be more giving themselves. The original concept was if one person helps three people and they help three people that eventually the whole world would have been helped.

My personal results, as of this point in time, is that my original gift of $25 and the succeeding gifts after that, even though I am not contributing new money at this time, result in an additional 6 gifts a month that with due diligence, I am blessed with helping 6 families to better their lives. I am grateful for this opportunity and hope that I can participate on April 25 to celebrate this Paying It Forward day.