The Tikkun Project
Lesson
8
Learning about Micro-loans
Concept
Rambam's highest form of giving a loan or opportunity that builds self-sufficiency is a concrete, learnable model of action, not just an abstract ideal, and it can take more than one real-world form: a loan, or a skill-building opportunity like a training program.
Focus Question
How effective are loans as a tool for reducing the impacts of poverty?
Knowledge & Understanding Goals
Mathematics, Financial Literacy Strand F, Grade 4: Demonstrate an understanding of the concept of borrowing and lending money, including the role of interest.
Language, Strand C (Comprehension), Grade 4: Answer explicit and inferential comprehension questions about a literary text.
Thinking & Learning Skills
ATL — Thinking Skills: Applying an abstract principle (Rambam's highest-order giving) to multiple concrete real-world mechanisms.
Learner Profile: Knowledgeable, Thinkers.
Context
The unit's final piece of background knowledge before students finalize their action plans exists to make sure "provide a loan or opportunity for self-sufficiency" is a genuinely available and understood option, not just a line on a chart students can't act on.
Lesson Outline
REVIEW RAMBAM'S CRITERIA & CLARIFYING TERMS
What is a loan? A sum of money given to a person for a period of time and then returned to the lender, sometimes with interest. Loans can come from banks, individuals, or groups.
Remind students of Rambam's highest order of giving: a gift or loan that helps a person become self-sufficient so they won't need ongoing assistance. Do you agree or disagree with Rambam? (Strongly Disagree – Strongly Agree or Not Sure) — record this initial position; the class will return to it later in the lesson.
READ "ONE HEN"
As a class, read the book, then answer comprehension questions in small groups: Where did the money for the loans come from? (20 families pitched into a fund) What did other families do with their loans? (firewood cart, fresh fruit stand, sewing machine) What did Kojo first do with his loan? (bought hens) How did the loan help Kojo and others over time? (hens provided eggs → saved money for education → secured a loan → opened a farm → hired people → provided loans to others in turn)
LEARN ABOUT LOCAL LOAN ORGANIZATIONS
Show a video about a local Free Loan organization (Toronto Free Loan; Windmill Lending). Ask students to list ways these small loans might support people locally: lending money for a sewing machine; lending money to help someone get re-certified in a career in Canada; lending money to buy an e-bike for deliveries.
REVISITING OUR POSITION
Return to the opening poll. Ask: now that we've seen how a loan actually worked for Kojo, and heard about real local loan organizations, has your view of Rambam's claim changed? Students explain, citing something specific from One Hen or the videos — not just re-stating a feeling.
BEYOND LOANS: OTHER PATHS TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Explain that a loan is one way to help someone become self-sufficient, per Rambam's highest rung — but not the only way. Introduce three real local examples that take a different approach to the same goal: Ve'ahavta's Speakers Bureau, where people with lived experience of homelessness are trained and paid to share their stories publicly, building both income and job skills; Eva's Phoenix, a Toronto youth-homelessness organization that, for over 24 years, ran a full working print shop where homeless and at-risk youth received hands-on graphic design and print training alongside paid work experience (the print shop itself closed in early 2026, but its 24 years of training hundreds of young people is exactly the kind of self-sufficiency-building Rambam describes); and Sistering, an organization supporting women, trans, and non-binary people experiencing homelessness, which runs Spun Studio and Inspirations Studio — social enterprises where participants build real skills through craft and creative work. Ask: what do a loan, a speaking opportunity, a print shop job, and a craft studio all have in common, according to Rambam's ladder?
CONSIDERING THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY TOOLS IN OUR OWN ACTION PLAN
Brainstorm playful, concrete examples scaled to a student's own world: a loan for hockey equipment; a loan for a stand mixer; a loan for a guitar tuner to busk for money. Then ask directly: could a version of this idea — a loan, or a skill-building opportunity like Ve'ahavta's, Eva's, or Sistering's — actually be part of our class's own action plan? What would that realistically look like for us?
Notes for Teaching and Evaluation
Revisiting the opening agree/disagree poll after One Hen and the real-org videos — rather than leaving it as a one-off warm-up — is the same before/after design used throughout the Tikkun curriculum to make a genuine shift in thinking visible and citable.
Introducing Ve'ahavta, Eva's Phoenix, and Sistering as non-loan examples of the same Rambam principle is what prevents this lesson from narrowing "help someone become self-sufficient" down to just "give them money" — the shared underlying criterion (does this help someone stop needing ongoing help) matters more than the specific mechanism. Using three organizations rather than two gives students enough variety to notice the pattern themselves without the list becoming so long it stops feeling concrete — three real, specific examples, each doing a genuinely different kind of work (public speaking, print trades, craft enterprise), is enough to make the underlying criterion visible.
The final brainstorm is deliberately sequenced after the real-org examples, not before, so the "could this be part of our plan" question is grounded in things that have actually worked, not just playful hypotheticals.