The Partnership..
School, Kinsmen helping in developing countries
By Edna Williston...The Miramichi Leader
Orginally published April 28/08
Up to now, many of the grade 11-12 students in the class at the James M. Hill High School had even heard of the group,
Kiva.
A non-profit group, Kiva (Swahili for "agreement" or "unity") is the world's first and perhaps only online "micro-lending"
organization, meaning participants in the group loan small amounts of money to selected entrepreneurs.
James M. Hill teacher Tyson Theriault said the 26 students in his World Issues 120 class became involved with Kiva when
a representative of the Miramichi Kinsmen asked if the school would be interested in participating.
"There is already a program in middle schools called Pay it Forward and the Kinsmen wanted to do something at the high
school level," he said.
Theriault explained he is teaching the class about non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and said Kiva is a learning tool
that allows students to find out about the different types of NGOs and present the information to their classmates.
"This is a process in which the community is getting directly involved with the school and helping the students feel connected
to the rest of the world," he said, adding "The minimum amount that can be loaned to an entrepreneur is $25."
As members of Kiva, the JMH students selected two unique entrepreneurs in developing countries to who to lend money provided
by the Kinsmen.
"The Kinsmen had the idea to provide $500 to any of the schools who were interested in participating and in the end we
actually ended up with $1,000," he said.
"One of the loans went to a farming group in Samoa and the other to a woman in Cambodia who is starting a grocery store."
Theriault said any interested party can access the Kiva.org website and select someone to support from a number of potential
entrepreneurs.
The website also allows for loans (usually 6-12 months) to be made to the working poor, during which the lender receives
e-mail journal updates. When the loans are repaid, the lender may withdraw the funds or re-loan them.
Theriault said once he and the class familiarized themselves with Kiva and understood the intent of the organization, enthusiasm
for the project quickly grew.
"When I first introduced the idea to the class, I wasn't sure how they would respond. I was kind of nervous, but it turned
out to be kind of neat. The class presented on their country of choice. They then presented on their selection of their entrepreneur
from that country."
Theriault said applicants are often quickly snapped up.
"Some [students] were upset because some of the people they had chosen had been sponsored from a Friday to the following
Monday. It was very interesting to see how they took on ownership," said Theriault.
Grade 12 students David Flanagan, Samantha Davis and Travis Cook said they are pleased with the opportunity this initiative
has provided them.
Flanagan said the experience has been great. He said the two weeks spent in the research and selection process was a real
learning experience.
"Actually ... we had someone ... [but] we checked back one day and they were already completely paid for, so we had to
switch our presentation up again and go to another person," he said, adding monitoring the progress of the potential borrower
was also interesting.
Davis said she was very pleased with having the opportunity to actually help people.
"It just feels good to make a difference in someone's life. Some of these people couldn't even pay to feed their families
and because of us they get a chance to have a good life. We actually got to deal with people with world issues within the
World Issues class. I couldn't believe it," said Davis.
She added it wasn't that difficult to make a selection because it seemed obvious, at least to her, who actually needed
the assistance.
Cook, too, said he did not find it difficult to choose who he felt needed the help, but added in the end it was a class
decision.
Kinsmen connection
Steve Myles is a Miramichi Kinsmen director and member of the executive. He said he is thrilled with the way the JMH class
picked up on the Kiva initiative.
"It is just a great project all the way around. It is a new initiative, but it is kind of an extension of something we've
tried for the last couple of years," said Myles, referring to the Kinsmen middle school "Pay it Forward" program.
"We wanted something similar with the high schools. The whole thing, of course, is to try and involve the young people
with the idea of charitable giving," he said.
Myles said as a rule, schools generally spend all their time fundraising and the Kinsmen decided they wanted to make it
possible for the students to concentrate on the recipient(s).
"With the middle school, we gave them the money and let them use all their creative juices to find places to give the money.
At the high school level, we thought this Kiva program was a perfect fit," said Myles.
He first thought of Kiva when it was referenced by Bill Clinton during an interview for his book Giving.
"It was my thought that either an economics or world issues class would find this interesting. When I approached Tyson
[Theriault] he just ran with it. He just jumped all over it and got the students involved," said Myles, adding there are many
great lessons to learn from the experience, including economics, financing, charitable giving and banking, as well as learning
about third world countries.
"... The amount of people that a small micro-loan can impact is just mind-boggling," Myles said. "The neat thing is that
the repayment of this money is virtually 100 per cent. So the beautiful thing is that the $1,000 they chose to split between
these two recipients will get paid back," he said, adding that when it is, the money will be available to be loaned out again.
"It is really a permanent recycling of money." said Myles.
