An interesting, and legitimate, non-profit organization called Kiva (www.kiva.org), allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.
Small amounts of capital can jump start a business in the Third World. It's a bit like that old saying 'give a hungry man a fish you feed him today; teach a hungry man to fish and you feed him forever'.
Maimonides wrote of the Eight Degrees of Charity (Rambam, Hilchot Mat'not Ani'im 10:1,7) saying:
There are eight levels of charity, each greater than the next. The greatest level, above which there is no other, is to strengthen another by giving him a present or loan, or making a partnership with him, or finding him a job in order to strengthen his hand until he needs no longer [beg from] people. For it is said, "You shall strengthen the stranger and the dweller in your midst and live with him," {Leviticus XXV:35} that is to say, strengthen him until he needs no longer fall [upon the mercy of the community] or be in need.
Using Kiva you can fulfill Maimonides highest level of charity and in a practical way make the world a better place. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It is a powerful and sustainable way to help someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.
Here's where you can join:
https://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=register&_isc=865762fc-cdbf-102b-ac3c-ecd46065da15
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
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