Makes me think of the story of they walking along the ocean, picking up starfish that washed ashore and throwing them back. Some asks him how can he hope to make a difference since he cannot possibly throw them all back. He says, made a difference to that one. I like this trend towards direct lending. You know you are helping someone and precisely where your funds went. If the 30% interest figure is correct, that does sound too high. Perhaps a Kiva competitor will show up and charge less.

Usually when starfish are washed up on shore, they're already dead. So no, it doesn't make any difference to throw them back; except to which scavengers eat the remains, crabs or seagulls.

30% sounds high to you, who can get a mortgage at 4.5% today or a credit card that charges only 18%. When you live in a village that doesn't have a bank and everyone has spent their entire lives living off cash alone, paying 30% interest for a huge injection of startup capital is pretty cheap. (Not to mention the higher default rates, overhead costs, currency fluctuations, etc...)