Mommy Points - The “Can’t-Miss” Mother’s Day Present [A Mother's Day gift to a Cambodian mother]

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers and mothers-to-be out there.  Being a mom is not easy.  It is not glamorous.  It is not a “well-paying’ job in the traditional sense.  But, at the risk of sounding cliché, it really is the best, most important, and most rewarding job out there.  The more you put into it, the more you will get back, and what you “get back” is more valuable than any other form of payment.  That said, I hope that all the dads and kiddos out there are taking some time out of their day today to do something nice for all the moms in your lives!  Here is a shot of my own little one sleeping when she was two weeks old.

We were going to all go to brunch this morning, but cartoons and yogurt in bed ended up sounding more appealing, because you can’t wear jammies to brunch.    So, instead of spending $25 bucks on some french toast and orange juice, we decided to pay it forward and spend that $25 toward making another Kiva loan.  Being that it is Mother’s Day, I wanted to select a mom for today’s loan.  I settled on a 60 year old mother of four who is still working her tail off to provide for her family.  Here is part of the write-up about her on Kiva:

Chuon, 60, has spent most of her lifetime dedicated to rice husbandry, from which she is able to make a proper living for her family, consisting of four children. Chuon has been in this business for 12 years. She is a very hard working mother, who works tirelessly in the field because she wants to provide education to school age children. To share responsibilities for the family, Chuon’s husband produces and sells smoking tobacco for profit.
Chuon would like to take out a loan from HKL and Kiva to add to her capital to pay house construction costs. With the leftover amount, she will buy a used motorcycle for home use as well as for the family’s businesses. For her future prospects, she hopes to save money to for the family’s emergencies and for her children’s education.

I have hard days, and I have one child, and my job consists of writing and researching on a computer.  I can barely imagine what Chuon’s life has been like doing the work she has done and caring for four children in Cambodia.  I may never know what that life is like, but I do know how to lend $25 toward her house construction costs.  If all goes as planned, I will be repaid that money within 18 months.  However, even if it doesn’t, I am happy to have played a small role in the life of this mom.

If you are new to the Kiva concept, it is actually a perfect fit for those in the miles and points community who want to do some good and meet minimum spending requirements/earn points in the meantime.  You make loans to people all over the world and then (most of the time) are repaid those loans over time.  You can use your credit card for no charge to make the loan, then you can cash out your repayments and start the process all over again.  I have a full write-up of Kiva here.  I am a proud member of the Milepoint Kiva team.  I’m a very small-time member who has been making about one loan every month or so since I joined, but I am a firm believer that every little bit counts.

If you would like to get started, you can do so without any out-of-pocket cost to you.  Via an anonymous donor, new Kiva members can make a $25 loan on someone else’s dime.  The loan repayments will go to the anonymous donor instead of to you, but it is a great way to learn about Kiva without having to commit any of your own funds.  There are over 6,000 free trials left, so let’s see if we can decrease that number some!

As I was making the loan today, I realized that this could be a perfect use of some of the Visa/MC/Amex gift cards purchased at office supply stores using the New Ink Bold card for 5x…… paging Frequent Miler.  Again, Happy Mother’s Day, and thanks for considering making Kiva a part of your family’s Mother’s Day!