From the hands of the children
|
| Fourth-graders in Sue Partin's class in Malden Grade School raised more the $230 by making trail mix for their classmates during the ISAT tests. The money, combined by funds from other donors, will be used to provide loans to small businesses around the world. (BCR photo/Barb Kromphardt) |
MALDEN – What do a cattle rancher in Bolivia, a woman with a soft drink business in Peru, a Peru businessman, a bookstore owner in Paraguay, a young mother in Nicaragua, a Moroccan immigrant in California, and a cattle rancher in Azerbaijan have in common?
They’re all the recipients of loans from students at Malden Grade School.
The project is a collaboration between the school and the Malden Methodist Church. It’s the second year for a project between the two groups. Last year, students raised $1,400 for Nothing But Nets, an anti-malarial program to provide mosquito nets.
But that was last year.
“This summer, (Superintendent) Deb (Dalton) said to me, ‘What are we going to do next year?” said the Rev. Beth Galbreath of the Methodist Church. So Galbreath did some research.
“I was looking for something that was small enough, that was doable for the school with classes of this size,” Galbreath said.
The project Galbreath came up with was Kiva, an organization that provides microfinancing for small businessmen and women around the world.
“It has the advantage of being an ongoing program; so when the loans are repaid, then the next classes get to lend that money, as well as other money they may add,” Galbreath said.
Galbreath did a PowerPoint presentation to the teachers, offering the program as option for social studies.
“Teachers Sue Partin and Zepha Gerber bit at it and said, ‘We really want to do this with the kids. We really think it’s a great social studies idea,’” Dalton said.
Dalton and Galbreath discussed the program and decided maybe each class could raise $10. Galbreath offered to find people to match each $10 raised with $15 to make the minimum $25 loan.
Fortunately, they didn’t quite realize what a success it would be.
“It took the kids awhile, the process of figuring out how they would raise money,” Dalton said.
The sixth-graders decided to do extra chores at home and raised $50, and the fifth-graders decided to paint faces during a basketball game and raised $30.
Then came the fourth-graders. They decided to make an ISAT survival kit, a kind of trail mix with popcorn, M&Ms, pretzels and fish.
“They took orders,” Dalton said. “They set it up as a business and learned what it took to run a business, and they got $233 worth of orders.”
Galbreath set up the team, titled the Malden Musketeers. On their Kiva homepage, the students had to say why they want to lend the money, and they chose to write, “We want to change the world and make a difference. We want to help kids get more educated and get a decent place to live. We want to lend, so people can work their business and won't starve.”
“The kids are inspiring,” Galbreath said.
Raising the money was only the beginning. Dalton said the classes will follow their loans and learn more about the people they have helped.
“It’s a great real hands-on social studies project. You learn about people; you learn about countries; you learn about cultures; you learn about needs; you learn about putting up a business and being an entrepreneur; you learn about managing money. It’s everything,” Dalton said. “It’s life.”
Gerber especially likes the fact that it gets all the students involved and excited.
“At first they groaned, and then when we started doing the project together and putting all the pieces together, it just started to click,” she said. “The kids were excited when they finally saw the big picture.”
Gerber said the students voted on whom to support and follow the recipients’ progress on the Kiva Web site.
“They’re really excited about it,” Gerber said. “They’ve really taken it to heart and really grabbed the bull by the horns. I hope to continue this actually next year because this is really an awesome project.”
Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.
