Happy Holidays from Kiva and Ladies’ Home Journal! *What is Kiva?* Kiva is a non-profit organization working to alleviate poverty by connecting people through lending. Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. *Consider the facts:* * Over 1 billion people live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day) - 75% are women and girls. * 76 million primary school-age children are not in school - 60% are girls. * There are 876 million illiterate adults in the developing world - over 65% are women. * Women produce half the world’s food, but own only 1% of the world’s farmland. * But when you invest in a woman’s future, the story changes. Statistics prove that when you invest in a woman, that investment will go toward improving the health, education and overall future opportunities not only for herself, but for her children. And that has a powerful ripple effect. If a mother has access to financial resources to start or grow a business, her future, and her children’s futures can change forever. It’s a virtuous cycle. Join Ladies’ Home Journal and Kiva in helping a woman entrepreneur start a cycle of change today! What better way to learn about Kiva than to try it for free? Until January 31, 2012 at 11:59 PST, Kiva will provide free trial loans to the first 3,000 folks who become new users and make a loan. Supplies of free trials are limited to one (1) per new user, and will be made available on a “first claimed” basis. More information is available at: http://www.kiva.org/ladieshomejournal Please also consider joining the Kiva Pittsburgh team to stay in touch with other Kiva lenders locally: http://www.kiva.org/team/pittsburgh -- Make a Small Development Loan, Make a Big Difference. Easy. www.kiva.org