More Kiva Giving and Real Life Volunteering (#19)

Yes, I'm getting caught up!  I've been working on my 30 Before 30 behind the scenes and now I'm sharing with all of you.

I've been staying true to my goal of every time my Kiva loans get repaid to pay it forward to other people in need.  Since Erik and I have been thinking about the logistics of buying a home and saving for said home (while trying to get out of debt -- grad school for 8 years combined + living long distance for a year in two expensive cities will do that), I've decided to start helping people with their housing needs.  Meet my new Kiva borrowers:

Chimeddorj Chadraabal from Mongolia

"Mr. Chimeddorj, 27, is a fireman in the security service of the airport in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. He has been in his job for five years, and his monthly salary usually does not meet his family's necessities. He is unmarried and lives with his father and his two younger sisters.

They live in a house that was built in early part of 1970. Lately it has became old and difficult to live in because it has been damaged in its all parts such as the roof, walls and internal decoration. He is planning to make insulation in its wall at first due to the cold and heat loss during the wintertime. It is important to warm his house and to reduce further smoky coal usage. Also, he will buy an electric furnace for his house heating. According to his plan, the smoky coal usage of his family will be stopped after these renovations at his home.

The loan he is taking will be used to purchase the building materials to make adjustments to his house and purchase the electric furnace for smokeless heating."

Haneen Abu Hableh from Palestine
"Haneen is a 26-year-old young woman. She is married and a mother for one son and two daughters. Her husband is a blacksmith with low income. Haneen wants to purchase new home furniture such as bedroom furniture for her children, living room seats, dinning room furniture, etc. to offer to her family their needs for furniture to live in better and comfortable home conditions. Haneen needs to take a loan from FATEN for 2,000 USD since her husband's low income isn't enough to cover all these purchases. When Haneen gets the loan, she will be able to purchase all the family needs for furniture, so she will satisfy her family needs and offer to them better home living conditions."

Hannen was not photographed (but her husband was) because she is a conservative woman.  In fact, all the women I was looking at to invest in were all conservative and their husbands were photographed instead.

And, so you all don't think I'm just going to donate my way through my 30 charitable acts, Erik and I participated in a food sort at Second Harvest Food Bank through my firm.  It's actually pretty cool to work for a place that organizes group volunteering on "school nights".  It was fun to hang out with my colleagues and "do good". We made bags of food for senior citizens.  It's sad to think that this may have been their only groceries for the week.  And quality control? Not really existent.  When you're doing something on that scale, I can see that it could be hard.  I found 2 expired cans of food in my bags. Was I the only one looking? At any rate, we filled 1,050 bags of food for seniors in our neighborhood. Wow.  Here's a photo from the warehouse.

Us in front of all the bags we filled.