SMS Kiva is on Pause.

All,

Over the last several years, my students have been making TONS of loans to people in developing countries around the world using Kiva — a popular microlending site.  Then, they have been writing about those loans here on our SMS Kiva blog.

That work has been incredibly rewarding for me:  Watching my sixth graders change the world every day during our first period class is nothing short of awe inspiring.  We’ve lent to single mothers, to refugees, and to people in over 150 countries — all from our classroom here in North Carolina.

We are, however, taking a bit of a pause in our work.  Our lending account was hacked and several hundred dollars in loans were made without our permission.  We have to wait for those loans to be paid back before we can even begin making new loans again.

Know that it is likely we will start lending again and creating new content at some point in the future.  For the time being, though, there won’t be a ton of new content to explore.

Hope that makes sense,

Bill Ferriter

The teacher behind the SMS Kiva Kids

Jobs in Kenya

In the nation of Kenya, not many people have jobs compared to how many people in the US do.

Those people also live near South Sudan, and Ethiopia, which were all at war recently for South Sudan to become a country. This means, that some jobs were destroyed or taken by refugees and torn by war.

Kenya’s furniture industry creates about 160,000 jobs to those who have lost jobs or those that have never been able to get a job due to family history.

I think that this loan to Moko in Kenya is important because, they need help handling money so we are giving them  a field partner to do it for them and to help them.

 

Revised and Edited By: Kayla P, Hannah L, and Rachel I

We’re Back!!!

After a considerable amount of time since our last post, we’re back from a long summer break. After enjoying the sun and the sand, we have come back to loaning and researching poverty.

Image result for the beach

As well as coming back, some new members may be recruited, and some members may have left. We will still have plenty of loaners and researchers.

The Wall…….. Is it a Good Idea?

Since our new president, Donald Trump, has come into office, he’s had a lot of plans. One of his plans is to build a wall across our U.S.A-Mexico border.

But is it a good idea?

The wall is going to cost anywhere between 12-15 billion dollars. With that big of a cost, people question it’s values.

What are some of the pros and cons? Well, the main pro is that it will help will with illegal immigration of people and goods, like any drug or product that’s not allowed here.

The main con is the cost. There are lots of other ways that we could use the money. Is it a good idea?

We could use it to help other countries. In 2012, about $37,000,000,000 were sent overseas to other countries like Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

We could also send it to the bill to end poverty. In order to get rid of most of poverty, we would need to pay $175,000,000 for 20 years per year.

We would to use it to feed hungry children. It takes 20 cents to give a child a meal in parts of Africa. In other parts, it takes as little as $10 to feed kids in refugee camps for 3 weeks.

Lastly, we could build homes with the money. It would cost 40 million dollars to build four homeless shelters. We could build 1500 homeless shelters with that money.

The list goes on, but it’s your choice of what you want to do. You can help in lots of ways, including Kiva, to help stop poverty.