I finally put my money where my mouth is and gave my first loan through Kiva.org. Yeah, it’s just $25, but my hope is to make a $25 loan every paycheck I get, and I figure every little bit helps.

My first loan was to a young man named Abdul Sabor Abdul Gafor. Here’s Abdul’s story…

Abdul Sabor lives in district 15 of Kabul, Afghanistan. He has the responsibility for supporting his family because his father and mother died in an explosion in Kabul 4 years ago. He is the youngest of his brothers.

He sells cosmetics on the street in the city. He took his 5th cycle group loan and bought shirts, clothes for children, and some extra things and is doing a good business. He wants to take anther loan to rent a shop and expand his business to support his family better than now. He would like to thank AFSG for helping him.

After reading Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin’s book Three Cups of Tea I’ve been really interested in helping individuals in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I agree with Mortenson when he says we can do a lot more by showing the people of these counties that we want to help them, not bomb them. Hopefully my $25 will show Abdul that there are good people in the US who care about the people of this region.

If you want to give a loan to Abdul, you can do it here. And if you want to learn more about Kiva and their other potential loan recipients, go here.

[Update: About two hours after posting this Abdul's loan was fully funded. I never realized how fast these loans are getting made...amazing!]