Pupils' loan plan puts world firms on the map
By Phyllis Benson
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 17, 2007
By pooling money from school fundraisers, the 5th- through 8th-grade Student Council members of St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic School in Prospect Heights have helped some of the world's working poor achieve economic independence.
These loans, called microfinance loans, allow investors to pool small sums of money to help entrepreneurs in Third World countries through an organization called Kiva, a San Francisco group that partners with organizations that can distribute the money to the poor.
Science teacher Bob Babiak saw a "Frontline" program on microfinance loans at a convention in Baltimore and suggested that pupils participate.
"They liked it. It was novel, new to all of us," Babiak said.
The pupils conducted their own research online and selected the entrepreneurs they wanted to help. With their $100 loans added to other small loans, a woman in Ghana was able to open a juice bar restaurant, a man in Kenya upgraded his car-wash business, and a woman in Togo purchased equipment to drill a well for drinking water in her village.
When the money is paid back, usually in six to 12 months, the funds can be redistributed.
In the past the pupils have given money to the math-a-thon or helped kids with cancer, but "that was kind of abstract," Babiak said. "Here they can see a person, see a picture, and know exactly what they want to do. They can see how the money is getting used to help somebody very directly.
"It's not a handout. So far Kiva has a 100 percent payback record. [The poor] are not just taking the money and running but putting it into a business and acting responsibly.
"All the problems in the world, here's some Americans they don't know who are helping them get on their feet. I think it's a good idea."
For information, visit
www.kiva.org.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearnorthwest/chi-nwkivamay17may17,1,1487052.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearnorthwest-hed
