Might micro-finance be the way to go for your friend? It seems like the kind of project you read about where people with a little extra put up small amounts of start-up money that goes into a revolving fund-pay out, pay in, pay out fund. I think they deal in amounts under $1000 US and from what I have read about, more like amounts less than $100 US. Default rates tend to run under 10% in the Asian projects I have read about in The Economist.