One Hen Project

Change the world for twenty-seven dollars?  Thirty-three years ago, Muhammad Yunus made a loan of twenty-seven dollars to some villagers in his native Bangladesh launching the micro-lending revolution, winning the Nobel Prize, and changing the world. 

The Sebastopol Rotary Club is excited to partner with Pine Crest School to bring the One Hen Microfinance for Kids program to our community and introduce the power of micro-loans to our children. The program is based on the book One Hen, the inspiring story of a young African boy named Kojo who buys a hen with the small amount of money from his mothers’ micro-loan. From one hen, Kojo grows a thriving business in his small town in Ghana. 

Working with Pine Crest School, members of the Sebastopol Rotary Club presented the program to the students and provided each classroom and the school library with the book One Hen.  In addition, each teacher and the librarian received a follow-up guide to classroom activities.  Pine Crest has embraced the project and is committed to have students raise funds to support existing Sebastopol Rotary Club micro-lending projects in Uganda and Kenya. These are micro-loans in the amount of $400.00, so nickels and dimes will go a long way in teaching our children a valuable lesson and will help to change the world for a family in Africa.

   The Sebastopol Rotary Club has been serving our community for over 85 years and always with a special emphasis on K-12 education.  The One Hen project is a new and innovative program for our club and joins a rich history of Rotary programs dedicated to our schools. We read to kids and teach them to swim, we sponsor speech contests and support vocational education in the high schools and through our Sebastopol Rotary Educational Foundation we have funded over $103,000 in direct grants to teachers though our Teacher Mini-Grant program. 

For more information visit the folowing sites:
One Hen
Village Hopecore

Be sure to leave us your email address so we can keep you posted as we follow the One Hen donations from the collection containers in the classrooms all the way to the micro-loan recipients in Africa.