It's been an exciting few weeks coming out of the garage and I am happy to share the following news from the Garage. Let's just say we are busy going global!
Kiva Council gathered Town School Swag left over from last year and set up sales. During our weekly meeting, the boys opted to make a new connection and with our profits supported an orphanage. While our club rarely rears off course from lending, and never gives money to other organizations, we took a moment to incorporate Coiser orphanage into our recipient list. The orphanage's goal is to create a poultry farm that allows them to be financially self sufficient. Naming a chicken after our school? We are wishing the orphans at Coiser our best and give a big "Hello" to our new Town Garage mascot. In addition to the $25 we used for our chicken, we raised $275 for Kiva.org.
I always ask the boys to make loans intentional and to really consider the money, the person and the business. Here are some of the boys thoughts:
- Richards is the head teacher of summit primary school. It is a mixed school in a rural area of Uganda. He wants to buy a uv filtration system so his students can get and drink clean water. I believe this is important because water is a necessity in human life and water has been a necessity forever.
- I think we should loan to Caroline. Caroline will use this loan of 350$ to help pay for her fathers health needs. She is 51 years old and lives with her parents in Barra Puntod, Lopez Jaena. I believe this will really make a difference if she can help her fathers health.
- We definitely should loan to the Nasommor Group so they can get a water filter. Access to clean water is extremely important so people don't get sick and it is definitely necessary in places that don't always have good water.
6th Grade Advisory has found a new set of friends in Kenya. We hope that this is a lasting relationship and that we will eventually introduce our friends to the 1st graders of Town School when they embark on their country study of Kenya. I was introduced to Emmily via facebook and I couldn't be happier to engage with her. My 6th grade advisory was excited to share "A Day in the Life of Morning Meeting" with the children fro Cheery Children Education Center. While we have noted that a skype call may be difficult with the time zone, Emmily and I decided we could send some videos exchanges back and forth, get to know one another, and take it from there. I am excited to learn more from our friends in Nairobi, Kenya. Here is a video about lunchtime at Cheery:)
If you recall, last year's 7th Grade worked on statistics using the United Nations Millennium Goals and came up with some wonderful projects. In the end they chose to organize a "Walk for Water" during our final week and we raised $300 for Waterproject.org We just got word that our project is finished and the Coleb Primary School currently has clean safe water.
The 5th Grade Boys spent last week learning about word problems and creating their own to share with others across the globe. Check out what this year's group came up with! We are always looking for partners to share problems with so please spread the word. We currently have a collection of problems that you can find here. Look out for updates on places we discover through word problems throughout the year.
Lastly, 6th grade boys are actively discovering micro finance. The project was launched last week with a 40 minute simulation from One Hen. The boys used the simulation to discuss community issues that may exist in rural sub saharan Africa. It was interesting to see them address education for all, healthcare, jobs and opportunity, low incomes, lack of access to banking, and gender inequality to name a few. All the while they were supporting one another using an informal trust group model. Today, we had the opportunity to brainstorm how we can model micro-lending in our own community. Check out what we came up with and discover how you can support the 6th graders upcoming entrepreneurship adventure in the days ahead.
