Week in Review: Let’s Talk About Shorty Awards and Eye Opening Experiences

The Week in Review is a new feature we'll bring you every Friday to keep Kiva's fans and lenders up to date with news on microfinance, global development and all things Kiva from the previous week.

The Shorty Awards: Bubbly video blogger Marie Forleo is nominated for a Shorty Award -- rewarding excellence in social media marketing -- and has pledged $10,000 to Kiva if she wins. There's still time to tweet your vote. Jump on the bandwagon and help Marie support borrowers around the world through Kiva. Marie’s passion is infectious and we are thrilled that she is passionate about Kiva!


Barefoot, the other side of life: The Hindu newspaper this week told the story of Matt and Tusha, two American-educated Indian citizens who have decided to live a month of their lives on the same budget as an average impoverished Indian. In the article, they describe what it tastes, sounds and feels like to live on 26 rupees, or $1 a day. They knew it was going to be hard. What they didn't expect was how difficult it would be to go back to "normal" life after the experiment was over.

Would you try an experiment like this? What do you think you'd learn? Share your thoughts with us at blog@kiva.org. For more on Matt and Tusha's experience, check out Rs100aday.

photo courtesy of Mustafa Khayat