April 24, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Is making loans through the Web site Kivab4b really the best way to fight poverty overseas? Kelly Kleiman, of The Nonprofiteer doesn’t think so.
Kivab4b is a project sponsored by Advanta, the credit-card company, and Kiva, the charity that enables people to make loans to small business owners abroad. Through the new site, business owners in the United States can use their Advanta cards to make loans. The company matches users’ contributions.
But Ms. Kleiman, a lawyer and freelance journalist, doesn’t think this is the most effective way to help poor people overseas. Telling Americans they can solve poverty simply through loans — without the help of charitable contributions — isn’t right, she says.
She also takes issue with the Web site’s featured beneficiary, a Haitian woman who has started a small cosmetics company. Ms. Kleiman wonders whether helping people start businesses selling luxuries — even small luxuries such as cosmetics — makes sense in a country as impoverished as Haiti, where food riots broke out just a few weeks ago.
She concludes: “If the point is to rally the energy and commitment of American small business in support of its counterparts worldwide, Rotary (among other fraternal organizations) has a range of programs for just this purpose. Simply swiping your credit card isn’t really a substitute for that.”
