Kiva Research

Today in class we talked about some extra credit opportunities we have. It deals with Kiva.org, a website to loan money to borrowers in need an eventually receive the money back. We spent some time in class today looking at kiva.org researching how it works, and the different types of borrowers on the website. You can search up any country and or category and it will bring up a list of people asking for money. It's a reliable website that helps people in need.

criteria:

To earn five extra credit points:

• Research Kiva.org . Describe your findings, such as their goals, methods, efficiency, and reputation.
• Research potential borrowers. Find at least two borrowers and describe their business, their reasons for wanting a microloan, their past history, etc.
• Look at the big picture. Check out the city and country they live in, and describe what effect their location has on their need to borrow.
• Write your findings in an essay and post it to your blog. This should be a well-written, informative, and possibly inspirational essay that shows how much you have learned about developing nations, poverty throughout the world, and ways of dealing with this difficult situation.

To earn five more extra credit points (for a total of ten points):

• Do all of the above steps. This includes posting an excellent essay to your blog.
• Choose a borrower and make a $25 loan through Kiva. You will need your parents’ permission and assistance to do this, since it requires a credit card purchase to be made.

To earn five MORE extra credit points (for a total of fifteen points):

• Be a contributing member of the most generous class. I will calculate the percentage of students who make a loan for each class I teach. If your class has the highest percentage, and you made a loan to a Kiva borrower, you get five more points, for a total of fifteen extra credit points. (In case of a tie, both classes win!)