Hello my Steemian friends,
I wanted to update you on the state of Team Steemit on Kiva.org and tell you about the latest loan I gave on behalf of the team, using SBD earnings that my posts make here on Steemit.
I am happy to report to you that the team is going strong. We have 8 members now, half of whom joined in the past month alone!! I would like to welcome our four newest members and I want to feature one of them in this post. 
I loan because individuals were kind enough to donate their upvotes, steem, and/or steem dollars to my steemit.com account.
Inspired by these words, I went ahead and made another loan today, on behalf of Team Steemit on Kiva:
I provided USD $25 out of the total USD $1,175 loan to Avni. Avni is fifty-years old hard-working man who comes from the Ashkali minority community in Kosovo. Kosovo has the lowest per capita income in Europe, averaging about USD $3,000 annually. And the economic situation is especially tough for ethnic minorities in rural areas, such as Serbs in the Northern part, Albanians and Roma populations. Avni has been selling recycled plastic bags, recycled paper bags, drink straws for the past eighteen years. Not only has he succeeded in setting up this environmentally-minded business, he also makes a decent income from running it, which makes it possible for him to provide for his family.
This time Avni needed to take a loan to purchase a supply of recycled plastic bags to sell to grocery stores. This loan will help him continue and grow his business.
You can join the Team Steemit and help someone stand on their own feet, by joining me on Kiva and giving a loan of as little as USD $25.
Don’t give a hand-out. Give a hand up!
