Cyrus Merrill’s grade 6 advisory recently stepped up their Kiva loans efforts, adding to their roster of lendees a jewelry maker in Peru, a Kenyan timber salesman, an artist in the Philippines and a farmer in Tajikistan. Merrill said he expects the group to be able to lend more money in the near future. To date, three of their nine loans have been paid back in full, with one 82 percenet repaid and another 76 percent repaid.

For more information (as well as thank you notes from the sellers Merrill and his students helped fund), see the “Mr. Merill and students” Kiva loans site.