Humans remember things. Its true we all like to remember different things, whether it be birthdays, anniversaries or holidays. I like to remember days which bring awareness to a specific cause, like Malaria Day orAIDS Day. Even when we want to forget, we often remember those very bad days. A healthy things to remember is a life that was given to help others. On Memorial Day people honor our troops. On September 11th we are reminded of a tragedy, but also the emergency workers who became heroes.

I got a letter from my sponsor child today. He is only four, but he wrote that his favorite hero wasn’t superman, batman, or even daddy. He said it was Nelson Mandela. I can only guess maybe someone told him to write that. But still! What a hero.

Today is Nelson Mandela Day, a day about a guy who gave 67 years of service to bring justice in South Africa, helping create equality between people who have a different colors of skin from each other. He was thrown in prison, greatly oppressed for nearly 30 years for standing up for what is right. And yet he responded with grace, eventually becoming the president of his country. Although he lives far away from us, this century he has been set in stone as one of the greatest examples of being a persevering change-maker.

In honor of his struggle and effort to make earth look a little more like heaven does, today we also honor others who are also creating change- women.

In this era, women have been shown to be the most influential group of people who are able to change our globe. As many women around our world are still oppressed and not educated, they are the untapped source for change. They teach the generations, pass on truths of basic health care, are the life of communities, and even have the ability to help whole countries come out of poverty when they are given the education and resources to do so. Women are powerful!

And to help women on Nelson Mandela Day, Kiva.org and Dermalogica are working together to get help from advocates like you to provide women with these resources through mircoloans.

If you have never made a mircoloan, today is the day to start!

Why?

Firstly, because a little gift coming from you can actually give someone enough capital to change their lives. The best way to help someone rise out of poverty isn’t by just giving them stuff (though that can be nice) but by giving them the tools they need to provide for themselves. The poor are usually very consistent (a return rate of just shy of 100%) at paying back loans because they value your investment in their lives so very much. These loans help real people raise out of extreme poverty.

Secondly, because if today is your first time giving a loan with Kiva.org, for a limited time it is actually free. Why? Because there is this company who bought a whole bunch of loans for you guys to give out in honor of Nelson Mandela Day! Typically with a loan, the $25 you loan out eventually gets repaid to you (which you can then take out or re-loan again). In this case, after this money helps someone through the life of the loan, you don’t have the option of keeping it afterward for your personal coffee fund.

Thirdly, today is a day to make a loan because if you do, AND COMMENT ON THIS POST within this week, with a link to whichever woman you choose for give your loan to, you have the chance to win a bunch of Dermalogica skin care stuff or a book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Which I totally promote, about fighting for women as they are the key to changing the world). I know some of you have given to Kiva.org before, but even if you just make a new loan, I’ll consider you in on this contest.

There is no catch to this. And as few people comment on my blog posts, you have a pretty good chance of getting something from this contest on the Average Advocate. These guys are giving me, the blogger, this stuff to give away in hopes that more people will do a Kiva loan. Of course, Kiva, Dermalogica and myself wouldn’t mind if you actually realized how much life change you give someone by occasionally giving $25 (and hence you will maybe make your own loans in the future).

My own family has realized how incredible this is, giving micro-loans around the world to people we wouldn’t otherwise touch. It is just such a cool thing that we always have a bit of money circulating between different people, re-loaning over and over and over again. I love looking through the pictures of the people I loaned to and even praying for them sometimes.

So- CLICK HERE – find someone to loan to, and change someone’s world!

(And then comment below!)