I entered in a contest at Tongal.com where you had to describe the loan process at Kiva.org. I’m proud to be apart of this contest because I really think Kiva.org is an incredible service.

Basically, you get to pick who you give a microfinance loan to, with the minimum you can give being $25. You don’t pick a group of people or an organization that will then give it out. You pick the exact person you want to loan to. If you want to loan to a woman in Africa that is trying to open a grocery store, you can do that. And it’s a loan, not a donation, you get repaid.

While there are risks the average repayment rate across all of Kiva is 98%. See here for the risks associated with lending and Kiva.

To see mine and other videos on the contest website go HERE.

There are two phases to this contest. 1) popularity: videos are ranked and given prizes according to how many times they are viewed (one view per IP address). 2) Judges pick several winners.

Both phases have cash prizes so please pass this blog post around so I can get more views. They announce the judges winners on the 22nd, but the viewing phase goes until Jan 31st.

I’m thinking of posting a tutorial on how I did the 2.5D image effect with the face fading in After Effects. If you’d be interested in seeing that tutorial, make a comment below and if there’s enough interested I’ll record a tutorial on face morphing and creating a 3D scene with photographs in After Effects.