A twist on student loans.

Last year, a group of students at the Meadows School. in Las Vegas, Nevada, started a microbank for fighting poverty in poor countries. Through weekly sandwich sales at their school. and contributions, the students raised $25,000. They invested the money with Pro Mujer ("Pro Women"), a nonprofit organization based in New York that issues small Loans to poor women in foreign countries to use for starting or expanding small businesses. Now, according to faculty adviser Kirk Knutsen, the Meadows Microcredit Action Group has made microloans to women in Peru, Ethiopia, Tajikistan, and other countries. Their first loan--$350--went to Rosa, a woman in Peru who used it to restock her small grocery store. And the Meadows group is not the only high school, microbank: The Microfinance Club at Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Washington, has raised more than $125,000 for microloans in the Dominican Republic. One goat of the Meadows club is to encourage other schools to start microfinace groups. "In the countries we're Looking at, the government can't help the people," says Ashley Lovell, a 17-year-old senior who belongs to the Meadows group. "They rely entirely on charitable gifts to survive."

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