This project was inspired by our Kiva Loans to borrowers around the world and our research on the countries where these borrowers live!

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Our KIVA Loan Travels

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Last year, I took the CEL Social Entrepreneurship class. In it, we loaned to Kiva borrowers and learned about microfinance. This year, we are focused on something far more important than that: The United Nations Global Goals. If we can achieve these goals by 2030, we can get back the world we once had.

To help acquire these goals, our class used a website called Kiva. Kiva has helped millions of people all around the world through microloans. If you loan just a small amount to a borrower, you can help, too! But it’s not a donation. The borrower you loaned to has to pay back their loan and in just a small amount of time, everyone can be happy! Personally, I loaned to Kiva borrower Maria Angelica, who needed the money to pay for her daughter’s oral surgery. This may sound like it won’t make a difference, but if millions of people could pay for surgery and medical care, many of the Global Goals could be in our grasp.

And that one loan specifically helps Global Goal number three: Good Health and Well Being. I believe this goal is the basis for all of the goals. If someone has good health and well being, that means they’re not impoverished (Goal #1). It means they’re not starving (Goal #2). It means they have clean water (Goal #6).

The only catch is that the goals can’t be attained if nobody knows about them. So anyone can make a difference by simply telling a friend, teacher, relative, or sibling. Accomplishing these goals would be a huge turning point for humanity, and can only be earned if everyone does their part.

For more information, visit these websites:

https://www.globalgoals.org/

https://www.kiva.org/

To expand out study of the United Nations Global Goals, we chose to focus on U.N. Global Goal #6: Clean Water and Sanitation.  Too many people in the world do not have access to sufficient amounts of clean water - which should be a basic human right.  What have we learned? What can we do? Check out these Public Service Announcements our 6th grade students put together:

In addition to making and mapping Kiva loans, during our stay-home time, I also got to teach myself how to use the abacus! An Abacus has beads, that you push up and down from the bar in the middle to count things and solve equations. I learned how to do two-digit multiplication on it, by watching tutorial videos on YouTube. It helps your brain because it strengthens your memory:

For more information on KIVA Loans, go to: https://www.kiva.org/ ;

My name is Magnolia. In our Social Entrepreneurship class, we have been learning a lot about Kiva, and making loans to people who need them. One of the people that I loaned to was Thoi from India. I chose to loan to her because she needed weaving supplies and I love to weave, so I wanted to help her!  I also loaned to Tugendemumaiso Farmers Kalyambuzi Group. I chose them because I live on a farm and I also want to help them pay school fees for their kids since I love school. 

In class we haven't just been learning about Kiva, recently we have also been learning a lot about the U. N. Global Goals:

Some of the Global Goals help Animals and Plants, while others help people with normal everyday things. Some examples of what a Global Goal might do:

Zero Hunger: The Goal is to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. We should do this because more than 800 million people suffer from hunger worldwide and if no one went hungry it could prevent more illness and diseases.

Clean Water and Sanitation: The Goal is to ensure access to safe water sources and sanitation for all. We should do this because clean water is a human right, and yet billions of people don’t have it. About 1.8 billion people all over the world don’t have clean water. 2.4 billion people don’t have things like toilets.

Life on Land: The Goal is to manage forests, combat desertification, and save the land for animals. We should do this because forests sustain us with food and water that we eat and drink. 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood. Forests are home to 80% of all animals. If there are 8,300 animals known then 8% are extinct and 22% are in danger of extinction.

I got this information from: https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/

For more information on how you can loan to small businesses around the world: https://www.kiva.org/

In our CEL Social Entrepreneurship course, I made a microloan to a Kiva borrower who needed help with his welding company. He needed stuff like a grease gun and other equipment to help his company. The United Nations has 17 different global goals that they are trying to complete by the next decade, 2030. With that being said, some Kiva borrowers and lenders have tried to help with these goals within their country but others are mostly concerned about their own families. Kiva borrowers who are trying to work on things like good health and well being might need additional money, supported by the lenders - to provide food and medical care for their families.

We can make a difference by telling people and alerting people of the goals that the UN has given us to complete. I feel a lot more grateful for going to a private school because some people don’t even have the ability to even go to any school because of their circumstances. They’re either too far away or can’t afford to go to a school. Our plumbing, electricity, food, water sometimes, these all can be things we take for granted but others might not even have. Learning about the global problems in the U.N.Goals and loaning on Kiva.org has helped me be a lot more grateful for the opportunities and resources I have.

For more information, check out these websites:

 https://www.kiva.org/

 https://www.globalgoals.org/

In our CEL Social Entrepreneurship class, we learned about the United Nations Global Goals, some which are No Poverty, Climate Action, and Life On Land. Learning about these goals showed me just how many people are struggling to keep their businesses, and family going, and within a few minutes we all jumped to the challenge to help. We can make a difference supporting these goals by taking time out of our day to do simple acts of kindness such as, using water wisely or not wasting food. Some U.N Global Goals relate to our Kiva microloans because when we make an effort to help someone with their business to support their family, get an education - a Kiva microloan can help lift people out of poverty and provide food so they don’t go hungry.

Learning about the United Nations Global Goals made me realize how grateful we should be to have clean water, and to even walk on clean and safe land! When we video chatted with Eli (a Kiva intern) we talked about how important the U.N goals are, and how useful they can be to people all around the world. Without the goals we wouldn’t have an open door to this situation. The goals provide a way for us to get one step further. We also talked about how Kiva was creating a new fingerprint ID system that gave the people of Sierra Leone permission to have access to banking and loans. “Dreams are universal,opportunities are not.”-Kiva. This protocol means that Kiva gives more opportunities for people all around the world to live their dreams. By following these goals we can change our world step-by-step.

For more information, check out these websites:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

There are many ways we can make a difference. Kiva microloans are loans through the Kiva website, that help someone start their business, go to school and more. Microloans are small loans. You can make a loan starting at $25 and that money can really help and impact someone. One way to make a difference is by making a loan to someone relating to a Global Goal. We can use the Global Goals to inform our decision for who to loan to, because you can choose a Global Goal you want to impact, and use the filters on Kiva.org to find a loan that you would like to contribute to. For example, for the goal Zero Hunger, you can loan to someone that is going to use the money to buy things to start a farm.

One thing that stuck out to me was that women make 24% less than men in the labor market. This is something we would need to change if we want to achieve the Global Goal of Gender Equality. This is important because if everyone has an equal chance at jobs, then it will improve the community, because anyone can work anywhere no matter their gender.

A Global Goal that could help a lot is Quality Education. This goal can help because with a good education, someone can support their families and come up with a way to solve world problems . Another reason Quality Education is important is because when everyone gets a good education, it improves the whole community. I loaned to somebody in support of the U. N. Goals: Zero Hunger and Gender Equality. I loaned to Emily’s Group, from Kenya. My loan supports the goal of Gender Equality because Emily is a woman, and benefits Zero Hunger because they used the money to buy fertilizer which they can then use to grow food.

For more information, check out these websites:

 https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

In our CEL Social Entrepreneurship class, we learned about the UN Global Goals, and what they have in common with KIVA. The Global Goals are a set of 17 goals that the UN wants to accomplish by 2030. If some of these goals aren't done by 2030, the damage done from ignoring them might be irreversible. Some global goals that Kiva relates to are No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Climate Change, Clean Water & Sanitation, Gender Equality, and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institution. Another goal is Quality Education, and this is a really important goal because tons and tons of people don’t have access to schools or any form of education, and we take this for granted and even sometimes fake being sick so we don’t have to go to school.

For my Global Goals presentation, I chose to study Global Goal number 14, Life Below Water. I chose this goal because there are a lot of campaigns to stop global warming, and to plant more trees, but there aren't many that deal with the oceans. The polluted oceans and overfishing are some of the biggest problems in this world. People overfish and it makes an imbalance in the food chain in marine life. Pollution kills fish, and also makes it so people can’t fish and get food in certain areas. This goal helps stop those problems and take action on them.

During our CEL class, we video chatted with a KIVA employee named Eli, and he talked about the global goals and some projects KIVA is working on. One of those projects he mentioned was the ID project in Sierra Leone. This project is trying to fix the issue of people not having an ID or access to banks. KIVA is using fingerprints to help banks find people’s financial history. This allows people to access banks and money for their families. This project connects to KIVA’s slogan; “Dreams are universal, opportunity is not.” The ID system allows people to have the opportunity to go to banks and access them.

The person that I loaned to is Benjamin, and he needed money to help make his farm more eco-friendly, by getting a bio digester. This helps the global goal of Climate Action, and he also was gonna use the money from selling crops to help keep his kids healthy, so my loan also supports the U.N. Goal of Good Health and Well-Being.  KIVA is a big part in achieving the global goals. My loan helped Climate Action, and there are many others that impact No Poverty, Clean Water, or Zero Hunger.

To find out more, check these websites:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

In CEL, we learned about the U.N. Global Goals and how they relate to our KIVA microloans. There are 17 goals in total and each of them are very important. Some of my favorites are No poverty (1), Quality Education (4) and Life on Land (15). This year, I decided to loan to a woman named Bridget from Kenya on kiva.org. Bridget needed a loan to improve her business and educate her child. When I chose people to loan to on kiva.org, I usually loan to people who need money for their children’s education or woman because I believe that every child deserves all the education they can get and a lot of people think that men are smarter than women.

We take for granted that we can start new businesses, go to school, have food to eat and have a house to live in but a bunch of people all around the world can’t have any of those things because they live in poverty! Our KIVA microloans can help them because it gives them chances to start new businesses, go to school, have food for them and their family and have a house to live in.

When we Skyped with Eli, a worker at KIVA, he talked to us about KIVA and how a lot of people don’t loan to refugees. He showed us a short slideshow and taught us about the Fingerprint ID Project that Kiva helped develop in Sierra Leone. With our KIVA microloans, we can change the world!

To learn more, check out these websites:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

In our CEL class, we learned about the U.N. Global Goals and how the goals relate to Kiva microloans. There are 17 different goals and they need to be completed by 2030 or the consequences will be irreversible. The goals include many different things ranging from No Poverty to Climate Action. Making loans with Kiva can help with many of the U.N. Goals. Even just one loan can affect multiple Goals.

When learning about the goals, our class discussed things we take for granted in our everyday life. Such as school, which many people don’t like and will even do things like faking an illness to get out of school. We think of school as something we have to do almost like a chore. It’s rarely considered how others may consider going to school as a privilege. Things like clean water and enough food on the table are also often taken for granted. Things which we don’t even think about.

We were lucky enough to be able to Skype with a member of Kiva. One thing he talked about is a new ID system implemented in Sierra Leone. It allows people who previously had no ID or credit history to get them. Having a credit history helps people get a loan from a bank as it gives the bank a sense of trust with the borrower. This makes it much more likely that the bank will loan to you. The way it gives people an ID or credit history is by making an identification system that uses your fingerprint. With this system, you can also never lose your ID.

For more information, check out these websites:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

This year in our CEL Social Entrepreneurship class we learned about the United Nations Global Goals. Some of these goals are Gender Equality and Zero Hunger. As we were learning this I realized just how many people are struggling in the world and it has taught me so much about all of these goals and what needs to happen by 2030. This is so important because it will make a better difference in the world because the more people who know about the U.N. Global goals means the more people can make an impact and take action.

For our global goals project, I chose to research Gender Equality. I learned that in 2018 only 27% of women held manager positions which I think is crazy because that means that only 27 out of 100 women are in leadership positions. We need more women’s voices leading the way. On Kiva.org, lenders have made 2.8 billion microloans to women, which is good because I plan on lending to a woman so they can build up their business.

When we Skyped with Eli, who works at Kiva, we learned a lot more stuff about Kiva. In Sierra Leone, Africa, Kiva developed an ID fingerprint program to help villagers get loans for their businesses. This fingerprint ID system is the way they identify you to make sure you are the right person. It is a great way to get identification, and Kiva is trying to expand it to more countries and continents so more people have access to banks so they can create businesses.

For more information, check out these websites:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

In our Social Entrepreneurship class, we’ve been talking about the United Nations Global Goals and how they relate to our Kiva microloans. In total there are 17 Global Goals and for each one we complete the more people are helped. I personally don’t want to know what happens if we don’t complete them so everyone should be on board with this worldwide project. When the due date is in 10 years I still think that we can complete them and every goal counts.

For example, the goal I researched for my project was Quality Education- #4, this means that all people should receive good education to unlock a better path in life. This relates to microloans because parents need money to send their kids to school, and somebody might want to build a school for their town or village.

Kiva is a loaning website that uses micro loans to loan to people who want to start a business. However much you loan is what the borrower has to pay back to you. The minimum amount of money that you can loan is $25. I chose to loan to a group of women on Kiva.org that needed farming supplies to grow and sell food in their town. I think and hope that they might use some of this money to send their kids to school. In the description of the group it also said that they will use some of the money to help with their finances. I think that this supports the goals of Zero Hunger, Sustainable Cities and Communities and possibly Quality Education.

For more information, check out these websites:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

In our CEL Social Entrepreneurship course, we learned about the United Nations Global Goals, I specifically learned about the goals “No Poverty”, “Quality Education” and “Good Health and Well Being”. This made me realize how lucky my family and I are to live comfortably, and that I get to go to school everyday. This is important because a good education can break the cycle of poverty, I think that it is important that everyone gets the opportunity to go to school. Keeping this in mind, I loaned to a woman named Nery Yenifer. Nery lives in Peru and she is using the money to go to school to learn about industrial security so she can eventually start her business. She also wanted to use the money to make sure that her coworkers had a safe work environment. I really wanted to loan to Nery because she is using the money differently than most people. Most borrowers use the money to start a business, but Nery chose to use the microloan to go to school first.

We also Skyped with an employee from Kiva, named Eli. He told us about how some people are unable to take out loans from banks because they don't have a credit history or an ID, which most banks rely on. In Sierra Leone, Kiva helped develop a finger ID program, helping many people who weren’t previously able to take out a loan, now can. A woman named Nancy was the first person to use the finger ID, she had 20 people living in her family and had to support them all. Using the finger ID suddenly she was able to take out loans from many banks.

To learn more, visit:

https://www.kiva.org/

https://www.globalgoals.org/

In CEL we learned about the U.N. Global Goals some of which are No Poverty, Zero Hunger, and Decent Work and Economic Growth. This showed me how much people around the world struggle to keep their business or family going and, soon enough, I wanted to help! I chose a woman named Lan from Vietnam to loan to on Kiva.org. Lan lives near the water, so fish is her main source of food. Lan opened a fish shop and needed more money to keep the business going and so that Lan could send her kids to school.

We take for granted that we can go to school and go to the grocery market any time when there are 1.7 billion people who can’t swipe a bank card and buy food and or even go to school! But our Kiva microloans help with this, giving people around the world opportunities to grow their businesses, pay for education and support their families!

When we Zoomed with Dominique, an intern at Kiva.org, she talked to us about a lot of things that the Kiva workers do and how they help with the borrowers. Sometimes Kiva workers will get to meet Kiva borrowers in America or other places, which shows how supportive Kiva is. Dominique also shared with us how Kiva is set up to encourage us to loan to Refugees, who have a 95% loan repayment rate. With our Kiva microloans, we can help make a difference in the world. - especially to refugees.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

www.kiva.org

www.globalgoals.org

www.refugees.kiva.org

This year in CEL class we learned about the United Nations Global Goals and how they relate to our Kiva microloans. The UN Global Goals are a group of 17 goals that our United Nations (where World leaders work together towards peace and security, sustainable development and human rights for everyone). The purpose of these global goals is to make the world a happier, healthier, and cleaner place for everyone.

The majority of the goals either help the environment (with goals like clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, climate action, life below water, or life on land). And, there are goals that help people and their communities (with goals like good health and well being, quality education, gender equality, decent work, economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, no poverty, zero hunger, and peace justice). We watched several videos about these goals, discussed them and what we could do to make a difference We heard lots of examples of people who are working to complete these global goals. Most were trying to help the environment, by doing things like creating a new plastic using banana peels instead of fossil fuels to make plastic.

I do believe we need to complete the environment-based global goals, especially due to climate change and unsustainable practices. But I would like to work on the goals that help people and their communities because I don’t think that there are enough people doing that. I can do this by trying to treat everyone equally and getting involved in organizations that are trying to help people who are living in poverty by making sure they have good health, enough to eat, and a good education. By loaning through Kiva we are helping to achieve the global goals by, loaning to businesses who also work to complete the goals, and giving people the opportunity to not live in poverty because we can kickstart their business, helping them develop a sustainable job that earns them enough money to support themselves and their families.

In our Social Entrepreneurial class, we learned about the UN global goals - and how they relate to our KIVA microloans. There are 17 global goals - each goal has meaning and importance. To people like us, these goals might just seem to be small and unimportant words, but to people who are struggling and working very hard just to support their family, these goals can be life-changing. If we can teach more people around the world about these global goals and how we can help, we can achieve these goals by 2030. If you focus on one goal at a time it is easier to comprehend. For example, let’s focus on goal number 11, “Sustainable cities and communities”. This goal means that we need to build sustainable cities and reduce the waste to create a safe environment for living.

During our Kiva Market, my group sold candy and candy grams and we used sustainable paper bags - an intentional choice to reduce plastic waste and support the U. N. Sustainability Global Goals. We also made a deal that if our customers brought their own containers in they would receive a 50¢ discount - to encourage re-use and recycling. We also purchased huge bags of candy in bulk to reduce the waste from individual wrappers.

While thinking about all we learned about Kiva, microfinance and the U. N. Global Goals, I realize that we take a lot of things for granted. For example, we take going to school for granted. Some kids fake sick to skip school. Some kids in other countries wish they could be able to go to school. Kids in underserved countries live in poverty and often don’t have enough money to go to school. About 15 million children grow up in poverty. Children that grow up in poverty also lack the nutrients they need and have a higher risk of getting sick.

When I choose borrowers on Kiva.org, I look for loans that people need to help them with medical expenses - maybe they need money for surgery or special medicine or medical equipment. I do this because I believe that people’s health are very important and everyone deserves the opportunity to be healthy.

For more information, check out:

www.kiva.org

www.globalgoals.org

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We learned about Kiva and the lives of the Kiva borrowers in our CEL Social Entrepreneurship class. We also dived into the world of the United Nations Global Goals. So how do these two things relate to each other? The Kiva borrowers need loans to help their businesses grow, send their children to school, and for many more opportunities. The Global Goals aim to help the world be a better place, such as No Poverty, Gender Equality, Quality Education, and Climate Action. By loaning through Kiva, we are helping to achieve the Global Goals - and Kiva borrowers are our partners in this, whether they know it or not! Common U.N. Goals that are represented in almost every loan on Kiva are No Poverty because Kiva is helping them get out of poverty by giving them the loan, Gender Equality because women with businesses are often the ones who are taking out Kiva loans, and Zero Hunger because many Kiva loans are made to farmers, who then harvest the crops to feed their families and sell to help other people to get food.

This year, I loaned to a Kiva borrower named Quynh, from Vietnam. She needed a loan of $1,300 to buy acacia tree seedlings and pay the workers that work on her farm. On her farm, she raises poultry and grows trees for industrial use. The Global Goals that I helped support in Quynh’s loan are No Poverty and Gender Equality because she is a woman, Quality Education because she wants to use the profit money to send her kids to school, and Climate Action and Life on Land because she is going to plant trees to help the environment. I have learned a lot about the world through Kiva and this CEL class, and I will always remember these lessons.

For more on information, check out:

https/www.kiva.org/ 

https/www.globalgoals.org/ 

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Our Spring trimester students brought a new level of enthusiasm and creativity to their Kiva Market products!  The girls created beaded bracelets, decorated notebooks and an amazing variety of slime, along with duct tape wallets and more. The boys made handknitted lanyards and keyrings, splatter paintings of our school mascot, stress balls and sold small bags of bulk candy.  In addition, our 5th grade boys worked with Ms. Allen's 2nd grade class to produce original superhero comics and we published their stories in an anthology with our Blue Devil Publishing House - and sold over 20 copies, proceeds of which went for Kiva loans.  Thank you, Ms Allen's 2nd graders- you did a fabulous job!

Their efforts earned them over $600 in sales and - after taking out the cost of supplies - were each able to make their own individual loans to a Kiva Borrower of their choice!

In addition, because of Kiva's amazing loan repayment rate, these students got the chance to loan TWICE in one trimester - once in the beginning of the term using the repayment funds and once at the end of the term with their Kiva Market products sales.

Looking forward to next year with an expanded curriculum - to include the United Nation Development Goals, crafting blog posts, partnering with another Kiva lending team at a different school, as well as tracking our loans, learning more about the founder of microfinance and what role the field partners/MFIs play in the Kiva loan process.

Once again, after a brief introduction to microlending, our students had the opportunity to explore borrower profiles from around the world on Kiva.org and then choose who to allocate loans to -- the loans our students made included supporting borrowers who used the money to purchase inventory to re-sell at their village markets, equipment to transport more harvest to sell at market, sewing machines and supplies to create wearable items to sell and much more!

After reading "One Hen" - the true story of how Kojo's village elders practiced their own version of microfinance to help each family improve their businesses and this increasing their earning power - our Social Entrepreneurship students set about exploring 'small business' ideas on how they could earn money to increase their impact through microlending to Kiva borrowers.

This trimester, students created/sold products and organized several events to earn money. Products included slime, stress balls, hairbands, popsockets,customized Rubik's Cubes, original 'Niji Monsters', airplanes, etc.  The girls held KIVA Markets to sell their wares at lunchtime to upper and middle school students, the boys purchased, packaged bulk candy and sold to students at lunchtime and both groups sponsored a KIVA Market at SCH's after school program: AfterCare & Enrichment. Students earned over $600 at these events - to fund more microloans through Kiva.org and increase the global impact.  Congrats 5th grade Social Entrepreneurs!