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It all began three years ago in a Spanish class at Stratford San Jose Middle School, when 8th grade students in Ms. Sanchez’s class watched the documentary Living on One Dollar. In the film, four young friends attempt to live on less than one dollar a day in Guatemala, learning firsthand about hunger, hardship, parasites, and the crippling reality of what it means to be poor. Watching the film, our Stratford 8th graders were startled by the fact that over one billion people in the world consistently live on less than one dollar a day. They were also shocked to learn that 1 in 10 people do not have access to clean water, and that consequently 3.5 million people die from water related diseases every year. Recognizing the pain of so many people living without the ability to meet their most basic needs, the question how can we improve the livelihoods of families to help break the cycle of poverty? was posed across the school.
What is Microlending? This documentary, and the realization that it brought with it, sparked the idea of microfinancing with the students and connected them with the Kiva organization. Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Continue reading “They learned how to analyze loan distribution and evaluate the risks of lending”