World Issues Challenge: Dreaming big to fight poverty
The grade 12 World Issues class taught by Bryan Berg, has been caught up in quite a spirited debate.
As a final project for their unit on economic disparity, students were challenged to choose a country that ranks near the bottom of the UN’s Human Development Index.
They were then asked to do some research into the root causes of poverty in that country and to dream up a way that in a long term and sustainable fashion, some of those traps that cause poverty could be broken at the local level.
Each student wrote a proposal outlining how they would spend a $500 000 grant in order to improve the lives of local people on a small scale within the country of their choice. While the development projects themselves may have been hypothetical, the prize was real, as the winner in our elimination-style grant proposal debate was promised the opportunity to choose the recipient of a micro-credit loan made by the entire class.
Grant proposals included ideas such as: irrigation for agriculture in Djibouti, funding to improve teaching in Niger, education and skills training in Afghanistan and building primary schools in Sierra Leone. After lots of debate and some very close votes, this semester’s winner was Ben Fehderau for his proposal offering micro-credit loans to women in Sudan.
Congratulations to everyone who participated.
