Loan $25 to change lives through Kiva

I've signed up and made some loans through Kiva. It's a programme of lending into the "third world" on a "hand up, not a hand out" principle. Basically you contribute US$25 (or multiples) towards a loan to help a farmer or market stall or ... to expand their activities. Most of the loans are around US$1000, but when you look at the Gross National Product (or other economic indicators) for those countries, you see that what is a relatively small sum of money to us represents a number of years of income in those countries.

There is no interest payable on these loans, and no guarantee that they will be repaid (although statically most are repaid). So this is not an "investment" in any financial sense. It's investment in a better world.