Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.
Stewart Brand, the publisher of the Whole Earth Catalogue back in the 60's proposes a whole different view on slums. Villages of the earth are drying out and it's in town where poor people find opportunity, action and a cash economy. Slum dwellers are poor but intensely creative and urban. Considering population growth on earth in the next decades, squatters are building the world. Brand's notion is that slums do not undermine prosperity instead they help to create prosperity. Although I don't agree on every point with him, his TED talk is an interesting presentation about a completely different approach on the topics of cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering which will surely provoke widespread debate.
In addition to our discussions yesterday about alter-economies and population growth, an article on change observer: design observer gains insight into Jonas Bendiksen's work. Bendiksen, a Norwegian photographer, lived in slums for several months while recording and photographing daily life and people in slums around the globe.