“Make a loan, change a life.” This is the mission statement of Kiva, a microfinance non-profit organization that aims to expand financial services, such as the ability to take out a loan or own a credit card, to people who do not have access to typical banking.
Two Hackley students, freshman Marcus Song and sophomore Noah Meng, decided to bring Kiva to Hackley by creating a club. The Kiva club has two main goals: to educate the Hackley community about the organization and its impact and to help raise funds for Kiva to help people struggling with their finances.
Club leaders Noah and Marcus stumbled upon Kiva quite randomly, but upon learning the organization’s goals and impact, they knew that it was something they wanted to bring to Hackley.
“Over the summer, I read a book about microfinancing, and I thought it was really interesting. I decided to look further into the subject and came across Kiva online,” said Noah.
After this, Noah knew that he would begin the Kiva club and decided that there was no better person to help lead it than his friend Marcus, who was coming to Hackley as a freshman in the fall.
“When Noah pitched the idea to me, I looked at the Kiva website and was immediately on board. I was happy to start something new at Hackley, especially because I was just entering the Upper School,” said Marcus.
As their first big event, Marcus and Noah hosted a bake sale. All of the money earned from the sale will be donated through Kiva to someone without access to banking. Our donations will act as a direct loan to help get someone started financially or to get someone back on their feet.
The bake sale was a huge success, and the Kiva Club was able to raise $1040.00.
“The sale was great. Initially, we had a few worries as kids weren’t very responsive about bringing baked goods in or helping out, but our members ended up pulling through,” said Marcus.
Now, Marcus and Noah are in the process of getting the donations transferred to someone in need through Kiva. In the future, they hope to run more fundraisers and continue to help educate the Hackley community on financing issues.
