History teacher Cyrus Merrill’s grade 6 advisory recently made a series of loans to help fund entrepreneurs in poor countries. Utilizing a service offered by the Kiva organization, Merrill and the students provided money to help a beekeeping business in Kyrgyzstan, a maize farming operation in Mali, a grocery store and a general store in Peru, a clothing vendor in the Philippines and a teacher in Israel.

More information is available at the “Mr. Merrill and Harker” Kiva site.

Kiva is a service that allows users to connect with and financially assist entrepreneurs to combat poverty in various parts of the world through the use of microloans. Matt Flannery, Kiva’s co-founder and CEO, spoke as a guest of the Harker Speaker Series in May of last year.