Meet Joel. Joel is from Momostenango, Guatemala and has 2 young daughters He’s supporting them and his wife by currently traveling more than 500 km (300 miles) to find work in other cities.
What does Joel have to do with Collective Soul and Ryan? Well, Collective Soul participated in our Comfort Doll Project a few years ago and when we auctioned off the band photo, we reserved $25 dollars to ‘gift’ Ed Roland a KIVA loan for his birthday. We formed a KIVA team called Collective Souls, and a few of us saved our money from pop/soda can returns, pennies, and such, and when we had another $25 dollars we gifted Joel Koschea KIVA loan for his birthday. Some of us already had KIVA loans so when they were paid back, we would add another loan to Collective Souls Team in one of the band member’s names- and so it went until we had a loan for each band member (including newcomer Cheney Brannon who took over for Ryan). We also had fans join the team.
Back to Ryan 🙂 – the initial loan we gifted to Ryan (Jesus from Peru) was paid back over a period of time, and Ryan asked us to choose another Entrepreneur (Rosalina also from Peru) on his behalf so we did. Again it was paid back over time, and again we chose another person (Francis from Kenya) to lend the same $25 dollars to. This is the fourth such loan we’ve done on Ryan’s behalf.
Joel from Guatemala is requesting a loan of $1200.00 so he can start a business buying and re-selling clothing including T-shirts, pants, and shirts. His loan will be paid back monthly over 20 months, and as he pays it back, each person who has pitched in their $25.00 will get an equal amount back from his payments. Once the loan is paid back in full – all lenders will recoup their initial investment of $25.00 and be free to withdraw it or lend it to another entrepreneur!
Once Joel’s loan is paid back, we will chose another person for Ryan’s initial loan – its a gift that not only keeps on giving, but gives people a hand up rather than a hand-out… it allows them to find their own way to better their lives, kee p their kids in school, support extra dependents (often people in Africa have orphanced neices or nephews they are suddenly responsible for) – with Kiva, nearly all loans are paid back – only about 1 – 4% of loans are defaulted. Kiva is a brilliant idea.
As we said, each member in the band has a KIVA loan, and at this point, Ed, Joel and Cheney’s loans are all paid back, and we have a $25 dollar credit sitting waiting to be used!
