One Hen showcases microfinance to inspire students

Microfinance Focus, Nov.26, 2009: Nonprofit partners One Hen, Inc. and BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) has announced the launch of Kojo’s Academy, a 16 session curriculum. Middle school scholars participating in BELL programs in Charlotte will learn micro-entrepreneur’s stories, receive small loans, create simple key-chain and jewelry businesses, sell their wares, and vote on how to invest their profits, including donations to local charitable organizations.
The One Hen curriculum is aimed at helping students to understand how business works through hands-on activities and the simple stories of African, Asian and Latin American small entrepreneurs — seamstresses, fisherman, jewelry makers and more — all of whom started with little more than a good idea, a small loan, and the willingness to work hard and build their way out of poverty, said a press release.
“Equipping teachers with resources that bring world issues into the classroom and seeding children with an entrepreneurial vision for their lives and a passion to contribute to solving our world’s great problems are at the core of One Hen’s mission,” said One Hen’s executive director, Amma Sefa-Dedeh. “Stories of micro-entrepreneurship show children the difference they can make in their own lives by taking personal initiative, and the difference they can make in others’ lives by giving back. BELL’s commitment to build self-esteem and life opportunities for children makes it the ideal partner.”
The One Hen out-of-school time (OST) curriculum was piloted this summer in three Boston-area BELL summer learning programs with more than 120 4th and 5th graders. In New York City, scholars in another BELL summer learning program in Harlem participated in a one-day micro-entrepreneurship program, facilitated by volunteers from Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks and microfinance nonprofit Opportunity International.
“During our pilot this summer, we were genuinely impressed with how the One Hen program captured our scholars’ imaginations and engaged them in a meaningful, real-world project,” said M. Dean Bradley, Vice President of Regional Operations for BELL. “One Hen echoes BELL’s goal to create learning experiences that inspire scholars to set and achieve high aspirations for themselves, and to give back to their communities.”

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