$1.9 Million in a Week: Unique Online Furniture Joins Kiva's Lending Force

    QUINLAN, TX, August 09, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In a nation where many eat, drink, and live to excess, imagining the poverty levels that others in third world countries face is difficult. To paint a clearer picture, one can look at these statistics provided by Kiva.org: in the US the number of people that live on $1 a day is less than 2%. And for most of us, we couldn't begin to imagine how anyone could live on so little. Yet, in places like Africa, a lot of the population does.

So, in an effort to recognize their own blessings and improve the situation of women across the globe, the team at Unique Online Furniture has begun taking turns funding microloans through the nonprofit organization Kiva. Kiva is a nonprofit organization that works with a number of microfinance corporations across the globe to loan small amounts of money to impoverished people who have no access to formal banking institutions. Dating back to the 1800's when small loans of money or livestock were given to raise people out of poverty, micro-loans have long been thought of as an aid to reduce the existing poverty levels in many countries. The numbers of its success are pretty amazing. 98.94% of all the loans that have been made through Kiva since its inception in 2005 have been repaid. In India half of the SHARE borrowers rose above poverty levels and 80% of the borrowers from Bank Rakyat Indonesia graduated out of poverty as well. There is indeed something to be said for those statistics.

Julia Ritzenthaler, owner of Unique Online Furniture, launched her teams efforts in the beginning of the year with her own loans and has been giving each of the team members a chance to do the same since then. The last team member to complete her turn at micro-lending was Director of Marketing, Hillary Hansen. "It really makes you stop and think," Hansen said, "most of us here in the states will spend $25 on something unimportant without batting an eyelash. To these men and women, it means the difference of food and shelter for themselves and their families."

Ritzenthaler and her team have added Kiva to their calendar indefinitely. "It's just a great service and a great thing to do," Ritzenthaler mentions, "there's no reason we shouldn't keep lending." In addition to their Kiva contributions, Ritzenthaler and her team are slated to add more to their "Giving Back" strategy for their home decor sites in the months to come.

Unique Online Furniture has been in business since 2005, and has quickly become not only THE site to shop for the most unique styles and trends in bathroom fixtures, but also the business with the online experience most similar, if not better than that of a brick and mortar store. In addition to the testimonials too numerous to count, their client service has been recognized by a Professor at the University Of Cincinnati, who is using their client experience as a case study in an upcoming textbook.

Website: http://www.uniquevanities.com

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