Local Elementary School Students Take a Stand Against Global Poverty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) April 30, 2010 -- Oak Brook, Ill. (April 28, 2010) — When Katie Smith Milway, author of the children’s book One Hen, walked into Lincoln Elementary School in River Forest, Ill. yesterday, she was confronted with the extraordinary work of the school’s second graders. Up on a screen in the classroom was Opportunity International’s donation website, OptINnow.org, displaying that the children had raised $425 to help end global poverty. “Do you realize that you changed four people’s lives today?” Milway asked the class.

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Local Elementary School Students Take a Stand Against Global Poverty

Welcome visit Our WebSite:

http://www.onehen.org

One Hen is the story of a West African boy, Kojo, who receives a small loan to buy a hen and takes flight as an entrepreneur. He moves gradually from poverty to well-being to provider, creating opportunities for others. One Hen is the story of how the world undergoes change, one person, one family and one community at a time. The true story is based on the life of Kwabena Darko, a Ghanaian entrepreneur who used a microfinance loan to launch what ultimately became the largest poultry farm in West Africa. Darko was instrumental in building Opportunity International’s organization in Ghana and has served as chairman of its board of directors.

Inspired by One Hen, the 80 second graders at Lincoln School made and decorated hen houses out of repurposed milk cartons, bringing them home for one week to raise donations from their family, friends and neighbors. In just that short time, the students raised $425 to support Opportunity International clients who are working their way out of poverty. The Oak Brook-based nonprofit provides microfinance services to people living in poverty in the developing world. Through OptINnow, donors can choose specific Opportunity clients to support. With the money they raised, the Lincoln students selected three women and one man who have started small businesses in Mexico, Kenya and Colombia.

Also on Milway’s schedule on Tuesday was a trip to William Hatch Elementary School in Oak Park, Ill. There, she led an interactive presentation in the school auditorium with 3rd-5th graders, and later, with K-2nd graders. Bedecked with a beautiful Ghanaian kente cloth scarf, Milway retold the story of Kojo to the children, who had been learning about the book in their classrooms as part of a curriculum centering on using one’s hands to help others. Milway asked the children questions about the book, as well as about their own experiences running small businesses at home. The children enthusiastically responded with tales of entrepreneurship, such as lemonade stands, and Milway encouraged them to consider donating some or all of the profits from their small businesses.

Leah Vergotine, a Hatch School parent, coordinates the Hatch After Hours after school program, which features a class based on the lessons of One Hen. She is excited about the impact that programs like this can have on children’s worldviews. “As parents, we encourage our children to participate in a project and classes like this in the hope that it will take these stories out of a faraway place and help kids make a connection with real people in need,” she says. “It puts philanthropy in their hands.”

One Hen’s multi-faceted emphasis on personal initiative, financial responsibility, global awareness and giving back encourage a philanthropic response in general from young readers. “I am hoping to inspire kids to entrepreneurship and youth philanthropy,” Milway says. “Often, when kids first read One Hen, they think, ‘I can be a Kojo.’ But when they interact with the book, and learn how they can make a difference through micro-enterprise, they also realize, ‘I can help a Kojo.’”

Milway also encourages students to visit OneHen.org. At the site, children can learn more about the real-life Kojo, Kwabena Darko, they can read the stories of Opportunity International clients who need a microloan to work their way out of poverty, and they can play interactive games to earn virtual beads that can be translated into actual donations to people in need. She also encourages them to use the site to blog about their own experiences in microfinance.

To learn more about One Hen, visit OneHen.org. To read clients’ stories and to learn more about how to fund microfinance loans through Opportunity International, visit OptINnow.org.

About Opportunity International
Opportunity International provides small business loans, savings, insurance and training to over two million people working their way out of poverty in the developing world. Clients in over 25 countries use these financial services to start or expand a business, provide for their families, create jobs for their neighbors and build a safety net for the future. For more information, visit www.opportunity.org or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

About One Hen, Inc

One Hen, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that grew out of the 2008 children’s book on microfinance: One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, and the educator movement it inspired. One Hen’s mission is to help children become global citizens that succeed in school and beyond and marry that success to helping others. One Hen’s family of enrichment books and web-based resources teaches elementary school children about world issues where they can make a difference. One Hen materials cultivate values of financial responsibility, personal initiative, global awareness and giving back. The website, www.onehen.org, offers students a chance to learn through participating in interactive activities that simulate real loans to real micro-entrepreneurs from One Hen, Inc. field partner Opportunity International.

Media Contacts:
Cynthia Greenwood
Opportunity International
847-404-8404
cgreenwood@opportunity.org

Karen Schultz
One Hen, Inc
650-400-0987
karen@onehen.org

More information can be found online at http://www.onehen.org

curriculum     education     microfinance loans