Educators talk about these concepts, but how do we bring them together in a meaningful way. Kiva.org  is one way your students can learn about economics, the world, and helping people. Kiva is a unique organization. They facilitate common everyday people loaning money to the working poor. Notice I said loaning not giving. Like all loans there is a chance you won’t get repaid, but the failure rate is extremely small.

Loaning is a simple three-step process:

  1. Browse through the pages of people who are requesting loans.
  2. Click on loan and loan the person or group as little as $25.00.
  3. Pay for the loan using your credit card or PayPal.com

You will get updates on your loan as payments are made. When the loan is completely repaid you can take your money or you can loan it to a another person.

Why I think this would make a good classroom project:

  1. It’s personal. Your students can choose who they want to loan the money to based on the person profile. They see a picture of the person and learn about their life and how they make a living.
  2. You are loaning money and not giving money. Students can learn about loaning money and the way people will use that money to better themselves.
  3. 100% of your loan goes to the person. (Kiva will take donations also if you want to give them money to support the organization.)
  4. If you did this with multiple classes over a number of years, you could build up a portfolio of loans and loan out hundreds of dollars to hard working individuals. It is the contribution that keeps on contributing.
  5. It is a good thing to do. You are helping others help themselves.
  6. Students will be participating in the "global economy" one person at a time.
Students could do penny drives, can drives, fund raisers, and loan out what they have raised. They only need $25.00 to get started.
On the right hand side of my blog you will see one of the people currently requesting a loan. Click on the ad or go to Kiva.org  and learn more. Let me know if you decide to get involved.

If you are going to BLC08 make sure you go to Jessica Flannery’s session. She is one of the co-founders of Kiva.org and will be talking about the organization and it’s mission.