Before getting started, check out this wonderful children friendly video that explains the concept of microfinance by Opportunity International. You can find it here.
Purpose:
To help illustrate the concept of microfinance while allowing children to practice their math and problem solving skills. This activity also further exposes children to parts of Rwandan culture, and how Odette and Innocent were able to better their lives and those of their community by working together to form a cooperative*.
Instructions:
Children should be split into groups of two or three and each problem should be worked through within small groups and then reported to the group as a whole. A facilitator should have a chart or display board with the running record of correct answers before each smaller group moves on to the next question, since each question builds on the previous one. If any group gets the answer incorrect, then the group as a whole should work through the math to make sure that everyone understands. It can be especially empowering for the children to teach and help one another get the correct answers.
Children should be comfortable multiplying and dividing whole numbers, and have basic skills in problem solving. We also included a second set of problems that are slightly less challenging. We encourage you to adapt these problems to better suit the ages and abilities of the children you are teaching.
Materials:
A copy of the appropriate math problems (minus the answers!) for each child, a pencil, board/poster board to keep track of correct answers
* To read a great article about how Rwanda is fighting poverty through cooperatives, please go here.
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Can you help Odette, Innocent, and their friends work through these math problems?
In Rwanda, they use a different type of money then we do here in the United States. Instead of US Dollars, they use Rwandan Franc’s (RWF). 1 US Dollar is equal to about 550 Rwandan Francs.
1. If each of Odette’s 8 chickens lay 1 egg a day, and take one day a week to rest, how many eggs will Odette have by the end of the first week? (Answer: 48 eggs)
2. Innocent has 11 chickens, that each laid 1 egg everyday this week, how many eggs will Innocent and Odette have together by the end of the first week? (Answer: 125 eggs)
3. Seven other children in the group have 12 chickens collectively, if all of their chickens lay a total of 85 eggs, how many eggs will the entire group (including Odette and Innocent) have that first week? (Answer: 210 eggs)
4. After the first week, Odette, Innocent and the other children want to use their profits from selling the chicken eggs at market to buy as many new chickens as they can for the other children. If each egg sells for 10 RWF, and a new chicken costs 400 RWF, how many chickens can they buy? Do they have money left over to go towards the needs of the other children? (Answer: 5 chickens, 100 RWF left over).
5. What is the total number of chickens the group now has in their cooperative? (Answer: 36 chickens)
6. Now almost everyone in the group has chickens! There are still 2 children without chickens, but 4 more children in the group want to use their chickens in the cooperative to help everyone get what they need. Those 4 children have 24 chickens between them, how many chickens are now in the cooperative total? (Answer: 60 chickens)
7. The children decide to divide the chickens up equally so that everyone helps to care for them and can benefit equally. There are 15 children in the group, how many chickens does each child care for? (Answer: 4 chickens)
8. Now that each child has their own chickens, the group decides that some of their profits from selling the eggs at market should go to helping 5 of the children pay their school fees so that they can all receive an education. School fees cost 50RWF per week, how much profit will they need to make a week in order to send the 5 children to school? (Answer: 250 RWF)
9. If one of the adults in the community wants to borrow 1,750 RWF from the children so that they can start a fruit stand at the market, how many eggs will they need to sell that week to make sure that they can still send the five children to school as well? (Answer: 200 eggs)
10. Should the children use their profits to buy more chickens before making loans to adults in their community? Why or why not?
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1. Odette has 8 chickens, and Innocent has 11 chickens, how many chickens do they have all together? (Answer: 19 chickens)
2. Odette and Innocent want the other children in their group to have chickens too. If they are able to buy 11 more chickens with the money they make from selling the chicken eggs, how many chickens do they have total? (Answer: 30 chickens)
3. If there are 15 kids in the group, how many chickens does each child care for if they are split up evenly? (Answer: 2 chickens)
4. If each child's chickens lay 10 eggs a week, how many eggs will the children have altogether each week? (Answer: 300 eggs)
5. If each egg sells for 10 RWF, how many RWF will they make a week? (Answer: 3,000 RWF)
6. If they want to use their money to send 5 children to school, at a cost of 200 RWF each, how much will it cost them? (Answer: 1,000 RWF)
7. An adult in their community wants to borrow 500 RWF to start a banana coop, if the children agree to give them the loan, AND pay for the children to go to school that week, how much will it cost them TOTAL? (Answer: 1500 RWF)
8. How much money do you they have left for the rest of the week to buy other supplies such as food, clothing, and pens for all the children? (Answer: 1500 RWF)
9. The children want to start helping their community more by giving more loans to adults to help them start businesses and by sending more children to school, how can they do this? (Answer: one idea is that the children by use some of their money from selling the chickens eggs, to purchase even more chickens who will lay eggs that they can sell for a greater profit at the market)
Odette's brother Innocent (fourth from left), all grown up with a group of guys he created a carpentry coop with!
Pictures (of chicken and Innocent) copyrighted by Jen Lemen.
