Y9/10 Poverty & Power 

In the Poverty and Power specialism we have been focusing on the causes and effects of geographical poverty around the world. We introduced the topic by watching 'Living on One Dollar', a film in which documents the travels of four friends to a remote, poverty-stricken village in Guatemala. In an attempt to get an insight into what it is like to live in the conditions locals are used to, the four live on a single dollar each day. The documentary records their struggles going from the lively city of New York City to quite literally penny pinching their way through the greatest of challenges. Ultimately, the film gave us a deeper understanding into how difficult some people have it around the world, and following our class discussion, I can safely say that we left feeling all the more grateful for what we have.

In the sessions following our study of Living on One Dollar, we utilised a website called Kiva to help a group of 3 Latin partners with starting their medicine vending machine business in Puerto Rico. Kiva is a website which allows those struggling financially to ask for a loan in order to start-up a business. Once their business is developed enough, they use the income they earned to pay back each of the funders. First, we sorted ourselves into small groups and each found someone we thought best deserved our loan. We then used a voting system to come up with one individual we would then loan our $25 to. Eventually, we ended up with Carlos, a Latin Pharmacist whom, with his 2 partners, plans to start a chain of medicine disposing vending machines in order to give the Puerto Rican population better access to modern medicine. We ultimately decided on Carlos as we thought his business idea could go really far and help thousands of struggling Puerto Ricans in the area they were targeting. Then, the exciting aspect of a micro-loan is that when Carlos repays our loan we can loan to someone else and help lift another person out of poverty. 

Joshua N (Year 10 student)