VOA慢速英语20060828a

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Kiva: How Anyone Can Become a Personal Lender of MicrocreditBy Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, August 28, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Sometimes a small loan is a big deal. Microcredit has helped many poor people who want to develop self-employment projects into businesses. And it has helped small businesses grow so people can rise out of poverty.


Guatemalan woman sells chickens after receiving a microcredit loan

Today there are thousands of microlending organizations. Most depend on banks and rich supporters for the money they lend. But what about people who do not have a lot to invest but want to be socially active? They can go through a microlender in San Francisco, California, called Kiva. Kiva means agreement or unity² in Swahili.

Matthew and Jessica Flannery wanted to create a way for average individuals to lend small amounts to businesses in developing nations. In two thousand four the couple spent several months in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. She worked for Village Enterprise Fund, a microlender; he was a filmmaker. They tested Kiva in Uganda in March of last year. They quickly raised money from friends and family to make loans to seven small businesses.

Kiva operates through a Web site, kiva dot org -- k-i-v-a dot o-r-g. People can lend as little as twenty-five dollars at a time. And they can pay with a credit card through the PayPal system, which is processing the payments for free.

The money reaches small businesses around the world through Kiva's local lending partners. These partner organizations charge interest but Kiva does not. Loans are generally for a period of six to twelve months, sometimes longer.

More than four hundred entrepreneurs are in the process of repaying their Kiva loans. At least thirteen have fully³ repaid them. Lenders receive e-mails with progress reports about the businesses they supported.

On a recent day the Kiva Web site listed twelve businesses in need. Tom Okwii, for example, is an entrepreneur in Mbale, Uganda. He needed five hundred dollars to buy chickens. Alice Wanjiku in Kiserian, Kenya, was trying to raise seven hundred fifty dollars to buy two dairy cows.

The biggest Kiva loan listed to date was for two thousand dollars. The local partners are responsible for forwarding repayments⁵ every three months. People who lend money do have a risk of not being repaid. But Kiva says its repayment⁴ rate so far is one hundred percent. And it says its partners have historical repayment rates that average better than ninety-six percent.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss and online at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 repayment   

n.偿还，偿还款；报酬

参考例句：

• I am entitled to a repayment for the damaged goods.我有权利索取货物损坏赔偿金。
• The tax authorities have been harrying her for repayment.税务局一直在催她补交税款。

5 repayments   

偿还，报答，偿付的钱物( repayment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The repayments of the loan are spread over 10 years. 贷款可在十年内分期偿还。
• The repayments of the loan are spread over 25 years. 这笔贷款分摊二十五年偿还。