Adelphi Hosts Kiva Co-Founder

The status of the economy has not deterred all people from being conscious of their social responsibilities.

The Adelphi Campus Kiva group, being led by senior Business Management student Tahera Jaffer, is pressing forward with their obligation to make social changes and increase social awareness of poverty around the world.

The group was in attendance this week at Adelphi University's annual Hagedorn Lecture Series on Corporate Social Responsibility.

The night's guest speaker was Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva, an organization that facilitates users to make loans to entrepreneurs worldwide. Its increasing reputation and growing subscriber base has propelled the amount of user loans well past $130 million and has helped over 300,000 people worldwide.

Dr. Robert A. Scott, president of Adelphi University, and James Hazy, associate professor at the School of Business, introduced the speaker and topic, "Social Entrepreneurism and the Story of Kiva."

Jackley explained how Kiva.org is contributing to the fight against global poverty, enabling people to make microloans of as little as $25 to entrepreneurs worldwide. She told of landing on the stepping-stones of life events that led the way to the founding of Kiva, the Sunday school lesson on poverty, a weeklong service mission to Haiti, and hearing a lecture by Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

Small business owners in developing nations use these loans to buy supplies, things like sewing machines, livestock or fresh food to start, sustain or build a business. Users browse individual profiles and photos of each business owner and make loans to businesspersons of their choice based on type of business, gender, location or the amount of loan still to be fulfilled. Field partners then make journal entries on behalf of the business owners, updating the status of the loan, repayment expectations or day-to-day successes of their business.

"I've been following Kiva since its inception, and especially since being involved with Adelphi University's Center for Social Innovation," said Patrick Smalley, executive vice president for Fairhaven Properties Inc. at the Garden City Hotel. Smalley was one of more than 100 staff, students, residents and business types in attendance for the lecture series.

Kiva is not a lender; it is a means to get monies loaned to a microfinance partner in the specific country of the loan recipient, where it can then be administered to an entrepreneur.

Each microloan made by users are repaid. Most loans are repaid in full over several months, but as always, with a chance of default. The user-lender can choose to withdraw the repaid money or re-loan to a newly selected business owner. 

"Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty," said Jackley. Kiva is a registered 501(3)(c) non-profit organization based in San Francisco.

To join the Adelphi Lending Team visit Kiva's web site. Click the green box that says "Join Now" and complete the contact information to sign up.

Visit Adelphi University web site or call the campus's Cultural Events Hotline at 516-877-4555 for information on this or other upcoming events.