We participated in the Akun pop-up store last weekend. We also shared a rack with our good friend Study NY a percentage of our sales went towards Kiva a lending organization that provides micro loans to small businesses all over the world. I found it pretty amazing how efficient Kiva is as a loan provider. In the process of all of us vendors at the pop up selecting who from Kiva we would lend to after our sales… We found that if we took more than 24 hours to lend the loans would already be fullfilled!  As Tara told me: ” That is the best problem any lending organization can have”.  As someone that grew up in the oldest colony in the world, I am a firm believer in fair trade.  Providing a platform to cxchange services for a fair price (key word here being fair!) instead of  just giving temporary aid to developing or underdeveloped nations is defentely a step  in the right direction. Kiva does that on a one on one basis,  where you can directly see who your are trading with. That is just the icing on the cake. In case you are wondering, Kiva is also setting up camp in the United States and I am hoping Puerto Rico. Originally, I wanted to donate to Rosas 25 de Julio in Peru. By the time the pop up was over  (2 days in between) they didn’t needed our funding anymore In honor of my previous seamstress Josefina and also my mother. I chose Nelly Lucía from Itagui, Colombia. She makes clothes from home for evereybody in her neighberhood just like my Mother and Josefina. I will always have a soft spot in for women with make shifts sewing studios in their houses. If it weren’t for my mom’s desicion to keep 3 sewing machines in the dining room my entire childhood, I probably wouldn’t  be doing this at all. I have added Nelly’s profile picture from the Kiva website, isn’t she adorable?