KIVA: IB Educators Giving Back

During the lockdown I have really noticed how IB educators have been supporting each other and living the IB mission, not just through IB Educators Chat, but through various groups on Facebook, WhatsApp on Twitter. Supporting each other in this difficult time is definitely something we should be proud of and I am sure something which will impress our students. Serving others and taking action! 

I thought that we could move a step further by supporting some non-teachers through Kiva. Kiva is a nonprofit organisation, that lets you give donations of $25 to people around the world. It could be support anything from buying farming equipment through to helping someone with university tuition. You can search by cause, gender or country. As it's a loan, you usually get the money back, which you can then re-share!

Something which I really like about it, is that it gives you data about your donations! You can see how far your money is going, but you can also see who your money is going to! You also get some updates about your loans. I've been using this since 2013, so definitely need to start loaning more regularly!

My school has a great SA/CAS group which raises money for Kiva. I believe each homeroom gives a $25 loan at the first of the year and also all money raised from our plastic bottles (Germany gives you money for recycling) goes to Kiva. The teachers and students who are involved in this are awesome, and Kiva is definitely very visible in our school.

Kiva is an easy way to make an SA link in your unit, especially if you are searching through loans by category or country. It could also be a great economics/maths lesson to teach about micro-loans!

IB Educators on KIVA!

So this moves to my final point - in Kiva, you can join a 'Team'. When you donate, you can select the team to give in the name of (obviously your name too). It basically creates a lending-community! In the community chat you can also highlight interesting loans which you think other people in the team would like, or you can do things like pick a theme (for example 'this month - let's all fund educational loans).

I've created an "IB Educator" team on Kiva, and thought this would be another nice way to come together. Educators often ask me why I give my resources for free and don't take money - I am always happy to give my resources for free - I am making them anyway, so why not. I benefit just as much from our online community as anyone else. However, if you want to say thanks, a Kiva loan would be great (or a nice email and comment)! So for anyone who has wanted to send money my way, send it somewhere more worthy instead! Join the team and get donating! 

Here's the link to the IB Educators Kiva Team!

Here's a slightly rambling video of me basically sharing the information from above, but also showing how to navigate through the website!

If you sign up to Kiva - please use this link: ​https://www.kiva.org/invitedto/ib_educators/by/lenny5198​ (The link doesn't do anything special, it just shows me how many people sign up, and makes me feel happy)