Rachel Cook and Her Microlending Film Project

THE MICROLENDING FILM

A woman named Rachel Cook came to talk to us about a movie she made about micro-finance. In her film she told the stories of some of the people that were helped by Kiva.  They were very inspiring stories. She made me realize even more about how important it is to loan to people around the world because they can do so much with the money. The film also talked about what women do for their families if they get the money. Women are more likely to spend their money to help their families.  It was also very cool because she went around the world to these amazing people and talked to them. One of the women Rachel interviewed was named Tabogo and she grew up in a poor slum in Kenya. She got a loan and started a small very successful small store there. People can do great things for their community if they get the chance. To find out more about loaning go to http://www.kiva.org.

By Anna W.

Emy Gelb-Free the Children

The other day Emy Gelb came to visit our school. She is a former MCDS student who now works for FREE THE CHILDREN.  Emy loves to travel. She flew to Guatemala for the first time without speaking Spanish after she graduated from high school. When she got on a bus to go to the city, the bus looked like a school bus, except it was painted crazy colors and it had shag carpet and disco balls. In the middle of the drive the bus driver pulled over and let a woman on the bus.  She stood right next to Emy. Everything was normal about her except that she was holding a chicken…on a bus. Emy started thinking about how the bus driver didn’t care about safety because he was running red lights. She had never been so frightened or excited in her life.

While she was there, Emy learned about an American woman who sold all her belongings and took the money to move back to Guatemala and make a school.  Emy found that school and worked there for three months. Imagine seeing 40 football fields of trash and seeing kids who should be in school, and grandmothers climbing all over it looking for food, clothing or anything of value. That was what the Guatemalan dump looked like. This dump was right next to the school.  Emy was working with a student named Maria, and Emy asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. Maria said that she wanted to be a teacher so that she could teach her grandma how to read. 

Emy also visited Ecuador with students from Toronto, Canada. They helped a school kitchen get clean water for nutrition. Everyone in the community pitched in to dig a ditch to move the clean water.  Emy saw little old ladies who would dig and dig and helped a lot.  In Ecuador many men think they are better than woman and that woman are their property. In one town Emy visited, she was impressed by women who made beautiful textiles from sheep’s  wool. These women formed groups and worked so that the men could think of them as something more, something better.

One of the things that they say at Free the Children is PASSION+ISSUE=CHANGE. It means that when you put passion into an issue it makes a change.

Emy also gave us three challenges:

1.     Do your research. (Become a expert)

2.     Get creative!

3.    Do Something!

By Lila F.

MATT FLANNERY SPEAKS TO THE FIFTH GRADE

Kiva co-founder, Matt Flannery, came to our school recently and he talked to us about how he started Kiva, what made him start it, what challenges he faced, and how it has grown. One of the pictures he showed us was of a Maasai warrior with a cell phone. He said that the cell phone had technology where you could text amounts of money to someone else. Matt said that this made money exchanging so much easier for microfinance organizations and other people. I wish we had that kind of technology. One of his challenges were that people thought it would never work. They wondered who in the world would lend money to a poor person with a chance of not getting it back or something? Matt Flannery proved them wrong. Kiva’s repayment rate as of 4/5/12 is 98.91%. So only 1% don’t pay back their loans. That’s a pretty high repayment rate. I wonder how much the cell phones cost?

BY MAX P.

Robin Donohoe came with Matt Flannery to speak to fifth graders about how Kiva got started.  She works for a non-profit organization called Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation.  They helped provided the start-up money and business advice to Matt Flannery and his partner when they started Kiva.  Draper Richards and Kaplan Foundation gives money to businesses that they believe will make a change in the world. I think that this is a great organization because it gives businesses the chance to take off and actually help the world and people in it. They have helped ideas like:

Girls For A Change

Living Goods

Room to Read

They are great non-profit organizations. All these organizations help to give people a good push up towards a better future. Robin’s Foundation is a special organization that helps the world thrive!

By Lizzy C-C