What I've Learned

This semester has definitely been a learning experience. Throughout the assignments, I have learned to look at everything a little differently. There are so many things that we, as Americans, take for granted. Unfortunately, many people in other countries, including children, never get to experience things we do on a daily basis. Not only have I learned a lot from my own research, but also from the research of my classmates. It would take numerous days for one person to be able to research all of the topics that have been covered. Throughout the research, I was also able to receive feedback on writing and presentation skills. Kiva is a wonderful program. It allows people to be able to improve their income along with improving their community. It also allows many people to pay for educational expenses who otherwise may not be able to attend school at all. Each of my classmates seemed to focus on a different area or topic. It was interesting to see how each candidate was deserving of the money and for what reason. I enjoyed being able to read about specific loan candidates and why they were seeking a loan. Most every loan would eventually also be used to improve the community, whether it was going toward educational expenses, towards a family business, or towards improving living situations. All in all, I have learned a lot throughout this project. I would encourage the Kiva program to anyone looking to invest a small amount of money!

Healthcare Education

Many people in third world countries struggle to provide food and shelter to their families. Proper health care and health education is an important issue of many parts of the third world. Quality health care is difficult to find and or receive in many parts of the third world due to a variety of issues affecting the area. Small per capita gross national profit, high debt, and a lack of resources prevent the third world from providing sufficient health care to its population. All of these factors greatly reduce the physical quality of life that third world residents have. Health care is a major problem in the third world that needs to be addressed immediately. The HIV and Aids epidemic is an especially big problem that needs to be focused on in the third world. Many parts of Africa, Asia, South America, and the Middle East are being ravished by Aids and Aids related health problems. Health care and health education need to become a major priority in order to preserve the lives of people in these areas. With proper health care, and education the spread of Aids and other diseases would drop, and increase the live chances of everyone. Providing proper health education would more than likely decrease the mortality rate of young children.

Third-world Country Healthcare

Nearly 10 million children die each year from the lack of basic healthcare services. In third-world countries, many children die before the age of five. Most all of these deaths are due to diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. All of which could be cured and or prevented with access to healthcare services. Next to these illnesses, the next factor for children dying is malnutrition. Poverty levels and lack of food is an everyday concern for people that live in these countries.  With twenty-four hour access to hospitals and doctors in countries such as America, these children have every opportunity given to them and the ability to get their illnesses taken care of in a timely manner. Unfortunately, in third world countries, these children die because there is simply no access to health care most of the time or they simply could not get to a facility in time due to the few number of facilities. I find it very disturbing for these parents to have to know that more than likely one of their children will die before the age of five, due to circumstances that they can't control, yet ones that are more often than not preventable. Simple things, such as rehydration therapy, could prevent a child who has diarrhea from dying. So many people in America take healthcare needs for granted. Imagine being one of these parents who have to watch your child die a slow, antagonizing death due to something that could have easily been prevented.

Economy in India

India is one of the poorest countries in the world due to its very large and rapidly growing population. During the past few years, the government has made several improvements on the economy, however, there is still a long road ahead. India's economy has improved in a very unusual way, it relies very little on exporting manufacturing products. This tactic has proved to be a steady way to improve the economy. Although India is a very poor country, it has a very good education system. Unfortunately, education is not evenly spread throughout the country. A very small group of individuals actually receives a good education while most receive little to no education at all. This results in a relatively high unemployment rate despite the somewhat growing economy. Therefore, India is very dependent on imports from other countries which in turn decreases its employment rate even further. Gender equality is also a major problem in India's economy. Women who are able to enter the business world usually find themselves in chauvinistic and threatening work environments. It has a lot to do with familial pressure and cultural pressure. Once a woman gives birth, they’re expected to be home taking care of the family, and in many cases they’re taking care of their in-laws as well. There are family expectations, and marriage expectations. Personally, I think that if India improved its policies for education and allowed women to enter the business world without being scared of male backlash, the economy would rise at an alarming rate.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-31/indias-economy-lags-as-its-women-lack-opportunity

http://www.thirdworldplanet.com/indian-economy.php

Improving Poverty

Improving poverty was one of the main criteria I looked at when initially trying to find a loan candidate. Many people take for granted the fact that we are able to receive an education without any questions asked, and in most cases a general education is in no way something we can't afford because it's free. Another thing I think many people in America take for granted is the fact that no matter what kind of unimportant job we hold, we are paid minimum wage. An hour of minimum wage work in America is often more money than many of these people make in a single day. I personally can't imagine trying to raise a family on that amount of money. So, with these things in mind, I decided to do some research in hopes of finding some facts related to these concerns. This first website I came across explained about children living in poverty in areas such as Nepal and India. One of the loan candidates I picked, Jashoda and her husband Dinesh are from India. They are currently seeking a loan in order to be able to send their son to college so he will not have to face the poverty situations that they have had to live their lives in. Another website was about women making up 70% of the poverty in the world. To me, that is really sad. Gender should not cause discrimination. Women deserve equal rights. The third website I found was about education. 70 million children in third world countries are going without an education. I think that every child deserves to be able to read and write. I can't imagine trying to survive without knowing these things. It really makes you stop and think what the world would be like. And, I think it explains why these countries are living in poverty. How are people supposed to be able to get a job or work at all for that matter without being able to read?
http://practicalaction.org/children-who-live-in-poverty?utm_source=S000&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=C10105&gclid=CNX3r-Tw0bwCFecRMwodjgkAPw

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/mar/26/empower-women-end-poverty-developing-world

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/sep/20/70m-get-no-education

Top 3 Kiva Loan Candidates

http://www.kiva.org/lend/666208
Nancy is a 43 year old woman from Liberia. She currently runs a business selling cold water and gasoline. However, she only is busy around traditional holidays and Christmas. Nancy is a 6th grade drop out. She's married and is raising their five children which range from age 7 to 14. She is seeking a loan in order to expand the range of items she can sell in the store which will improve income and help her raise her family. I think that Nancy meets the loam criteria because she is raising a family of five children and helping to improve her community by expanding her business.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/666192
Jashoda and Dinesh are a married couple from India. Jashoda is illiterate and can only sign her name while Dinesh is an uneducated farmer. Together, they are raising their only son who is currently enrolled in school and reading at a grade 12 level. However, Dinesh's earnings as a farmer are hardly sufficient to cover the essentials without the cost of education expenses for their son. Jashoda is seeking a loan in order to pay for their son to continue to receive his education. I think that Jashoda and Dinesh meet the the loan criteria because everyone deserves to be educated and they want their son to be able to have an education unlike they did.

http://www.kiva.org/lend/666164
Vincent is a 40 year old man from Uganda. He is married and has two children who are both enrolled in school. Vincent has been running a drug shop for the past three years, which operates in clinics and sells drugs. Vincent is seeking a loan in order to expand the variety of drugs in which he currently carries in order to meet the need of his community. I think that Vincent meets the loan criteria because many people are going without health care and with Vincent expanding his drug shop, not only will he be meeting the needs of his family and community but also he will be providing his community with health care needs that they may otherwise not be able to have.

Education

Education is one of the most important things that we, as parents, can provide for our children. Unfortunately in many third-world countries, education is often not an option. According to a website, www.dosomething.org, girls are less likely to start school at all, while boys tend to drop out or have to repeat a grade. In developing low-income countries, every additional year of education can increase a person's income by an average of 10 percent. Children who are born to educated mothers are less likely to be stunted or malnourished and each additional year of maternal education reduces the child's mortality rate by 2 percent. We as Americans don't often have to deal with facts like that. However, many of these children even get the privilege of going to school or even being able to write or read their own names, especially girls. In fact, 53 percent of the worlds out-of-school children are girls and two-thirds of the illiterate people in the world are women. That's so sad. Education empowers women to make healthier decisions regarding their life. For example, women in Mali with a secondary level education or higher have an average of three children, while those with no education have an average of seven. That goes to show you exactly how important an education actually is. My point here is that giving children an education should interest those who want to improve poverty levels around the world. Beyond this limited audience, however, my point should speak to anyone who cares about the large issue of uneducated children in the world.