If you are still looking for Christmas gifts, here’s a great Christmas gift idea: A gift certificate to Kiva, a website that coordinates microloans to individuals running small businesses in the developing world. I’ve given donkeys as gifts to family members before, but this seems more satisfying: the recipient gets to choose for him- or herself who to lend the money to, and when the money is repaid, can choose whether to lend it again to a new person or to withdraw the money. If the gift certificate isn’t used within a year, it becomes a donation to Kiva, which is fine, too.

I like that. I mean, donkeys are great, but you can’t really play with a donkey if it’s in England or Spain and you’re in Canada or the US. A microloan, now that’s something you can play with – leafing through the profiles of people in need of loans, and perhaps thus being inspired to lend someone another $25.

Today is Blog Action Day 2008 and this year’s focus is on poverty. Poverty can be defined as lack of the common necessities that determine quality of life – lack of safe food, shelter, and clothing, lack of opportunities presented by education, health care, and community.

As many of you know I travel extensively in Central America and while I really enjoy the weather, the people and the relative cheapness of living there, there is another side to ‘paradise’.

What most people don’t see or see and ignore is the level of poverty in places like Nicaragua. Think about how your life would change if you were forced to live on twenty dollars per day. How could you pay rent, food, heat, hydro, cable, internet, clothes, gas for your car etc for just $600 per month? Impossible you say. Now imagine living on just $2 per day. That is what the majority of rural Nicaraguans live on. That $60 pays for everything the family needs for the month!

Poverty in Nicaragua is all consuming. It impacts every single decision people make from the obvious of what to eat and what to wear each day to the less obvious such as will your child ever go to school. While schooling is free to all in Nicaragua, the cost of supplies makes the opportunity unobtainable for a large percentage of the population. Only 9 percent of children in rural areas who start first grade will finish primary school because the family needs that kid to work to make enough money to feed the family. Hard to argue that schooling is important when you don’t have enough money to eat.

Now add the fact that the majority of the popluation is under 25 years of age and you can imagine the problems that Nicaragua will face in 15 years. The workforce will not have the education to compete in the world market place and never have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

There are plenty of organizations that address poverty in Nicaragua. One of my favorites is Kiva.org. They provide a way for you to directly impact the live of families in Nicaragua (and the rest of world) by loaning $25 to a business of your choice. Check them out and donate today.

Also see: 88 Ways to DO Something About Poverty Right Now

Wednesday October 15th is Blog Action Day. This year’s focus will be on poverty. Having traveled in Central America over the past couple of years and since poverty and education are two of my ‘hot button issues’ I will be participating again this year.

Last year the topic was the environment and I made a posting to my (old) blog here.

Blog Action Day is about changing the conversation for one day to an issue of global importance. It is bloggers, podcasters and videocasters around the world collectively posting on the same issue at the same time, to trigger a global discussion and to bring to bear the diverse opinions and ideas of thousands of different people.

On Blog Action Day bloggers, podcasters, videocasters and their audiences will discuss poverty and will be educated and empowered to take their own small positive actions. This day is about discussion, idea generation, and education.

I found this interview of Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank. His idea to provide “micro loans” to poor people to jump start their entrepreneurship truly is changing the world. In fact, Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Here are some key quotes from the interview:

“Women have a long-term vision, she wants to move up to something”

“It’s not Grameen Bank came and told them to do that; it is in their hearts”

“We developed a system which doesn’t need collateral, guarantee, legal”

“We citizens, we individuals, are capable people addressing social issues”

The interview is a must-read for anyone who wants to change the world—via a profit or not-for-profit company.