Possibly the best and most ambitious Kiva loan to date is trying to raise $50,000 to create a new clean energy loan program that will provide solar lighting, clean cook stoves, and water loans to over 100,000 rural farmers over the next five years. This effort is led by Juhudi Kilimo, a group that has already been working with Kiva to provide loans to farmers to purchase dairy cows, chickens, and irrigation equipment. Kenya seems to be the main focus of this program though the larger organization that they are working with, MicroEnergy Credits, works in East Africa, Mongolia, and South Asia.
These efforts will help provide needed services to poor farmers, improve the health of women who currently have to cook with stoves that destroy their lungs (literally!) with smoke, and help address climate change by reducing the pressure on forests and encouraging use of green energy.
I have been working with Kiva since 2007 and helped publicize their early efforts. In all this time I have seen a lot of really amazing loans. But none as ambitious and amazing as this one. See below for details.