Kiva.org hit $1 billion in microloans!

I posted last week that Kiva.org was about to hit $1 billion in microloans to entrepreneurs all around the world. They recently reached that major milestone, so let's look at their accomplishment in more detail:

Kiva.org has facilitated over $1 billion in microloans that have come from over a million lenders and have gone to over 2 million borrowers in 82 countries. The vast majority of loans have been repaid and then that money has been relent. To me that is the beauty of this concept. Years ago, I was given a gift of $30 to loan on Kiva. I loaned it out, it was repaid, I loaned it out again, it was repaid again. This cycle has repeated 13 times and each time the loan was 100% repaid! That initial gift of $30 has turned into over $300 in loans to people all around the world. One thing that makes Kiva unique is that it facilitates human to human giving. All of my loans were picked by me to go to individuals or small collectives that had provided stories, photos, and business or training ideas.

I encourage everyone to check out https://www.kiva.org, but am also interested in finding out what you think about microfinance in general. It has received a lot of hype, but I do think it is filling a niche and doing good. What say you Steemians?