We also received a lot of emails last week from people who read the BusinessWeek article about Kiva or saw the ABC News Now story and forwarded it to their friends and family and we'd like to thank everyone who helped us by spreading the word - we think the results of your efforts are obvious in last week's record funding.
In even more exciting news, Kiva.org is today announcing a new partner, South Pacific Business Development in SAMOA! We are incredibly proud to be partnering with this great organization and expanding into Oceania. SPBD's lending system uses the Grameen model and: "provides small, unsecured loans to groups of rural women. Women invest their loans into businesses based on their existing livelihood skills. SPBD's philosophy of lending is based on a respect for each individual's innate human ingenuity, drive and self esteem. It is these qualities which make people credit worthy, not the collateral which traditional banks demand." We know you'll love SPBD and the businesses we've just posted live so check them out before they're all funded.
