Microfinance?

One of the ways we can serve is through financial giving. One innovative way of giving to the poorest of the poor is through microfinancing. I heard about the concept when Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Prize. Then last week I was directed to a book review for A Billion Bootstraps (sorry I can't remember whose blog mentioned it). Anybody familiar with the book?

The reviewer writes:

Thurman's chapter, "A Thousand Battles, A Thousand Victories," is probably the book's strongest. It stands alone as an essay describing poverty and the "war" on poverty, with an acknowledgement that poverty is not only a financial problem. He says that most wealthy people are shielded from the poverty of developing nations, but it is important for people in developed countries to move beyond the data of poverty to a deeper understanding.

Thurman clearly explains absolute poverty and the relative poverty of low-income Americans. The difference between living on $1 a day or less and living on $1 to $2 day is often the difference between starvation and survival. Thurman stresses that microcredit often works best for the poorest people, as he points out, "Doubling an income of $1 or $2 a day is easier than doubling an income of $10 or $20 a day."

On A Billion Bootstraps' website, they list some organizations that are involved in microcredit. Included is HOPE International, "a global, faith-based, non-profit organization focused on poverty alleviation through microenterprise development" in Afghanistan, China, Dominican Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Moldova, Russia, Rwanda, South Asia, and Ukraine. Anyone familiar with HOPE?

Update: Rick Meigs posts that he is involved in microcredit through an organization called Kiva:

I'm so sold on this concept that I’d like to introduce it in a practical way to two people. I’m going to do this by giving away two US$25.00 Kiva gift certificate that two people can use to make their first micro-credit loan through Kiva.