Jose Octavio Henao

I wrote a bit about joining the Milepoint Kiva Lending Team last week. In the post I talk a little about Milepoint and Kiva. You can read my post here.

After signing up for Kiva I had to figure out who to loan to… Do I just choose someone that others on the Milepoint team are picking? Do I pick someone close to their borrowing goal? I really wasn’t sure how to come to this decision with so many people on Kiva having legitimate needs for the loan.

I decided to set some criteria for who I would choose and decided it would be based on three things:

1. They need to live in a country that I’ve been to (not so hard- I’ve been to around 50 countries)
2. They should be about half way to their borrowing goal
3. I had to feel that the Kiva loan would really change things for them. (I wasn’t looking for a successful person looking to expand their business)

I narrowed down my search to people living in Colombia, Kenya and Uganda. I started reading lots of similar stories which made it hard for me to choose who to pick until I came across Jose Octavio Henao.

Jose lives in Colombia and is looking for a loan of $550. At the time of my loan he was around half way to his goal. From his Kiva profile, he seems like someone that just needs things to turn for the better in some way or the other. His wife left him a while back and he is taking care of two children on his own. His business, a small food cart was robbed of it’s goods and his money leaving him close to bankruptcy. He needs this loan to buy products to sell on his cart so he can start earning an income again.

I hope that my small loan will help Jose get back on his feet and revive his business. If you would like to see Jose Octavio Henao’s Kiva profile, click here.

***Reminder***
Enter my contest by 2/17/12 for a chance to win a Kiva $25 Gift Card Here.