Oct 15th is Blog Action Day. It’s an initiative to do something on this day to help eradicate poverty. Yes, it sounds like an answer to a beauty pageant question, but I think it’s a great idea to nudge people like me into doing something new. That and it’s originator is a client of mine and I promised to do something. So today I went to a microlending website called Kiva and put down my $25. Not much, but something.

Microlending is this great idea where people give small loans to entrepreneurs who use the money to build their businesses and pay back the loans. Meaning that once you put your money toward a loan and they pay it back, you can choose to turn it back around and put it toward a loan for someone else. I’ve known about microlending since college. In fact some of my friends have been instrumental in making the concept a reality on a large scale across the world. But I’ve never done anything personally until today.

So I sat one of my munchkins down on my lap and we went to the Kiva site together and read the stories of all the different people, where they live, and looked at the pictures. It was hard to choose, but we went with a group of 5 women in Senegal who needed a couple hundred dollars to buy dyes to make clothing to sell. It was such a great feeling that I’ve decided that for every client I have, I’m going to do it again in their name so they can follow the people and be part of the success of these individuals. I’m also really excited about having this money perpetually circulating in microloans.

Ways to join in: (It’s late here today, but these things will all work tomorrow too!)

• Join Kiva’s Blog Action Day Group 100% of your money goes to the individual.
• Leave a comment here and $1 will be donated to Heifer International.
• Leave a comment here and $1 will be donated to Kiva.
• Digg the Blog Action Day site to increase its exposure.
• Spread the word: writing a blog post, email people, Twitter, Facebook, whatever!