Kiva Progress: Little Is Still Not Little

"A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed." - Henrik Ibsen

Profile: Lender > yayaver from Udaipur, Rajasthan, India | Kiva

It has been over a decade since I shared my initial thoughts on Kiva’s innovative peer-to-peer lending platform and its potential to transform rural finance. In July 2013, I wrote: “Little is not little, enough is not enough”, committing to lend $25 each month through Kiva and making my profile public so that the claim could be verified transparently. 

It has been 13 years since I first became a Kiva lender — joining Kiva on 25 June 2013 as yayaver from Udaipur, Rajasthan, India — and becoming part of a global community committed to empowering entrepreneurs who often lack access to traditional financial services. Over the years, I have witnessed how small loans can spark meaningful change and transform communities in ways that statistics alone cannot capture.

In May 2014, in “Takeaway from KIVA”, I reflected on one year of lending activity: $250 contributed as seed money, $100 already returned and circulating again as a revolving fund, and a belief that Kiva represented solidarity rather than charity. Over the years, I have witnessed how small loans can spark meaningful change and transform communities in ways that statistics alone cannot capture.

Current Progress: From the current Kiva dashboard, the journey has grown into

• 117 loans made
• $2,965 total amount lent
• 50 countries supported
• 94th lending percentile
• $133.83 currently outstanding
• $9.24 available to lend
• $234.25 total deposits
• Membership in the lending team: “(A+) Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious”

With $234.25 in total deposits and $2,965 total lent, every deposited dollar has generated about 12.66 dollars of cumulative lending activity. That is the compounding power of patience, repayment, and re-lending.

The losses also tell an important part of the Kiva journey: this was never a risk-free savings account, but a real participation in microfinance. Against $235.36 in total deposits — including $234.25 of personal deposits and $1.11 in currency loss reimbursements — there have been $92.29 in total deductions. This includes $37.75 donated to Kiva, $31.27 lost due to currency fluctuations, and $23.27 in default losses. These losses make the impact more honest: the journey includes generosity, risk, defaults, currency volatility, and still a functioning revolving pool of capital that continues to support borrowers.

What This Journey Shows

• Consistency and patience in small investments can build meaningful impact
• Empathy bridges global communities
• Solidarity is more sustainable than charity

Thirteen years later, the lesson remains simple: small acts, repeated with patience, can travel farther than expected. What started as a one time commitment of $250 has become 117 loans, support across 50 countries, and nearly $3,000 in cumulative lending. The numbers matter, but the deeper meaning lies in the relationships they represent — trust extended to strangers, opportunity shared across borders, and the quiet belief that dignity grows when people are given access to capital, not merely charity.