Microloans 2009

Bethpage High School students participating in the 2009 Microloans program for the 21st Century Scholar program took part in a micro-lending program in partnership with the Kiva Organization (www.kiva.org). The students named their team the “Fantastic Flamingo Financiers” and held two bake sales and collected money on their own and raised $400 to lend to entrepreneurs in third world countries. This money was added to the $350 that had been paid back from loans made by students participating in the Microloans program last year for a grand total of $750 to lend. Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty and is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. Students browsed through the entrepreneurs' profiles on Kiva, read their business proposals, and decided as a team who they wanted to lend to and how much they wanted to lend. The students made six loans:

• a dairy farmer in Kyrgyzstan
• a general store owner in the Philippines
• a grocery store owener in Benin
• a pig farmer in Cambodia
• a food producer and saleswoman in Ghana
• a grocery store owner in Peru

You can visit the Fantastic Flamingos lending webpage at Kiva.org
Since the inception of the Microloans program at BHS, students have lent a total of $1,300 to entrepreneurs worldwide!