Kiva allows students to microfinance philanthropies

Kiva, a nonprofit organization in which anyone can “lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world,” has recently gained attention for its approach on microfinance. Either individually or through teams, Kiva allows users to make loans to businesses that interest them and use the money paid back to them to repeat the process.

The University of Texas Kiva online team has loaned a grand total of $25,775 and is currently ranked No. 33 in the colleges and universities category of the site. Under the ‘We Donate Because ... ’ section of the team’s profile, the team simply quotes the University’s motto: “What Starts Here Changes the World.”

Marketing junior Vicki MacNaughton found out about Kiva through a TED talk in which one of the founders of Kiva, Jessica Jackley, lectured about how her interest in microfinance led to the creation of the organization.

“Microfinance is something I’d heard of before but didn’t know a lot about; her explanation was really enlightening and I knew that this was something I wanted to participate in,” MacNaughton said. “Being able to help someone make a life for him or herself, rather than just sending them a bit of food or something, is really the only way to enact permanent positive changes for people.”

MacNaughton has made a total of three loans so far. Her first came from $50 she found in an old birthday card when cleaning her room — remembering Jackley’s lecture, MacNaughton decided that if she had gotten by without that money until that point, she might as well use it to make her first loan.

Read more at: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/life-and-arts/2012/05/02/kiva-allows-students-microfinance-philanthropies

By Rainy Schermerhorn

At this very moment, there are people only you can reach…and differences only you can make.
                                                                                              -Mike Dooley 

Technology-Enabled Microfinance: Mifos Fuels Growth and Impact at Grameen Koota

HANDICRAFTS CHANGE FATIMA’S LIFE FOR THE BETTER

Micro credit from Micro Finance Foundation in Aden enabled Fatima to have her own shops to practise her handicrafts and generate an income for her and her family.

Fatima Hassan, a maker of handicrafts from Lahj governorate, did not expect that a small loan from the Aden Foundation for Micro-finance would change her life for the better.

Hassan is the breadwinner for her seven family members. She does not have any qualifications other than a high school certificate and some experience in making handicrafts. She worked making handicrafts with simple tools and that’s why she had never significantly improved her skills.

Looking back, she said, “I faced many financial hardships and my financial situation was very difficult. Such circumstances helped stop my skills from improving.”

The financial hardships she went through did not stop her ambitions to expand and develop her profession. She decided to take a small loan of YR 25,000 (USD 120) to expand her modest project.

With that sum of money, Hassan bought some tools and opened a small center for producing handicrafts in her modest house. Initially, the handicrafts she produced were sold to neighbors and adjacent shops.

Published on 26 April 2012 in Business
Author Amal Al-Yarisi 

Read more at http://www.yementimes.com/en/1567/business/767/Successful-microfinance-stories-Handicrafts-change-Fatima%E2%80%99s-life-for-the-better.htm

“I know of no great men except those who have rendered great service to the human race."  Voltaire

Are Women Better Bankers?

Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in microfinance. One key to Grameen's success is that it mostly works with women. Susan Davis of the Grameen Foundation explains why this is so important.

How important are women for Grameen?

For one, nine of the twelve members of the Grameen Bank board of directors are village women. And there has been research that shows that when women make financial decisions, greater disposable income goes into improved nutrition, health status, and housing for their children and families.

That's why the industry shifted. When Grameen started, it was just trying to reach 50-50 parity between men and women, but then they noticed the difference.

When did Grameen start focusing on women?
In the 1990's. There are still several hundred thousand male borrowers of Grameen, but they stopped being prioritized; the same thing happened at BRAC and other microfinance institutions.

At the end of 2005, 3,133 microcredit institutions worldwide reached 113 million people of whom 82 million were among the poorest when they took their first loan. Among those, 84.2 percent or 69 million were women.

Author: Valdis Wish

Read more at: http://knowledge.allianz.com/microfinance/microcredit/?108/microfinance-women-grameen-banking

“To me it seems that to give happiness is a far nobler goal that to attain it: and that what we exist for is much more a matter of relations to others than a matter of individual progress: much more a matter of helping others to heaven than of getting there ourselves.”

Lewis Carroll

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
                                                                     ~George Bernard Shaw~  

Should microfinance be commercialized?

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. "

Henry David Thoreau

Nirveeta Mahabir Log #8

             “Action is the foundational key to all success.”- Pablo Picasso 

Congratulations to the Spring 2012 class, we are doing a great job and I am proud to be part of it all! The last two events were a great success. GLOBE had its second information session and its third fundraising event for the semester.

            The information session had an overwhelmingly great turnout, so great that we should have chosen a bigger room for this session! It’s so exciting to see a lot of students showing interest in such great program. This is great as we hope to recruit another great conscientious class to continue what our class would be ending at. During the information session Dr. Sama mentioned that she tried to get this class to be one year long, yielding six credits due to a lot of students wanting to do more. When she said this immediately I was in high spirits, this came as music to my ears even though this is my last semester at St. John’s. How awesome would it be to be enrolled in such great class for a year! The attachment to GLOBE that we develop over the course of this semester is quite strong! To give students a chance to continue the initiative of GLOBE out of the class itself, we are trying to get a Microfinance club started on campus!

On the other hand, yesterday was GLOBE’s International Buffet fundraising event, another great turnout! The class provided a wide variety of dishes from our different cultural backgrounds to be sold at this event! We were definitely able to capture the attention of many students and raise a great amount of money! There is still one more fundraising event left and I hope that it would be as successful as these and even greater.

The feeling of knowing that we were able to raise a lot of money is amazing. This money is solely for the needs of an entrepreneur in a developing country. I can only imagine the happiness that our borrowers feel when they are given a loan. With these loans, they are also given a feeling of hope and surety that everything will get better once they can do something on their own. With this hope they can overcome poverty and make a better life for themselves and their families. The thought of knowing that we are able to give someone such hope and a better life is the most gratifying feeling ever!  As said by Sai Baba, “No Joy can equal the joy of serving others.”

- IT & Communications Team 

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.
                                                                                           ~Benjamin Disraeli

‘Paeng’ Microfinance Awards launched

MANILA, Philippines—Five microfinance institutions that have pioneered and popularized micro-credit services in the country will be chosen to receive the first Rafael B. Buenaventura Award for Outstanding Microfinance Institutions (the “Paeng” Microfinance Awards).

The award, which will be given out in November, honors the late former governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, who accomplished key policy reforms, including the extensive adoption of microfinance in the localfinancial system, while at the helm of the BSP from 1999 to 2005.

Nongovernment organizations (NGOs), cooperatives and banks are eligible to participate in the program, which aims to recognize the groups’ pioneering initiatives and exemplary work that have influenced and created positive changes in a community.

The five winning MFIs will receive technical assistance best suited to their needs in order for them to improve and strengthen their capacity to become commercially sustainable. (Information on the criteria, nomination and selection process and deadline can be found on the RBB Foundation website—www.rbb.bapcb.com).

The award is the first major undertaking of the Rafael B. Buenaventura Micro Finance Resource Center Foundation Inc., set up in 2007 by the Bankers Association of the Philippines to continue Buenaventura’s legacy in developing and promoting sustainable microfinance through capacity building.

Read more at: http://business.inquirer.net/55195/%E2%80%98paeng%E2%80%99-microfinance-awards-launched

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.
                                                                                                                               - Buddha 

Microfinance on the rise in Palestine, despite the risks

The demand for micro-loans has risen steeply in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years, according to data from the Palestinian Network for Small and Microfinance (Sharakeh), which represents 11 microfinance non-profit institutions whose total loan portfolio was $75 million by the end of 2011.
Between 2007 and 2011, the number of active microloans in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rose from 20,000 to more than 43,000. 
This trend is likely to continue, said Sharakeh, predicting that by 2015 the number of loans will reach 77,000. The number of active clients receiving loans from microfinance institutions has grown by an average of 27 percent annually since 2007, he added.
- RAMALLAH (IRIN)
Read more at: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=477868

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Grameen Foundation Celebrates the Ingenuity and Entrepreneurial Spirit of the World's Poor

On April 19, Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit, will celebrate 15 years of empowering the world's poorest people through financial and technology solutions at a benefit event in New York City. The foundation began its early work providing funding and other support for microfinance activities in Chiapas, Mexico, and today helps the poor access financial services, life-changing information and unique business opportunities on three continents. At the event, the foundation will recognize Qualcomm Incorporated's Wireless Reach(TM) initiative for its efforts to create mobile phone-based entrepreneurship opportunities for the underprivileged, especially women.

Dr. Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, will deliver the feature address and accept the foundation's Humanitarian Award.

"Grameen Foundation is committed to developing and providing financial and mobile solutions that make a tangible difference for people whose lives have been defined by a lack of opportunity and access," said Alex Counts, president and CEO of Grameen Foundation. "Qualcomm's Wireless Reach initiative has been a tremendous ally in helping to create mobile businesses that enable the poor to improve their financial stability, while providing valuable services to others in their community."

Read more at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/grameen-foundation-celebrates-the-ingenuity-and-entrepreneurial-spirit-of-the-worlds-poor-2012-04-16

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Henry David Thoreau

“In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.”

                                                                                Flora Edwards  

Microfinance bank receives award

Islamabad—Kashf Microfinance Bank Limited, one of the leading microfinance banks in Pakistan with over 160,000 customers across 27 cities has been awarded the prestigious 2011 Social Performance Reporting Award from MIX-Microfinance Information exchange (MIX),an international organization committed to strengthening financial inclusion and the microfinance sector by promoting transparency. Kashf Microfinance Bank Limited is the only microfinance bank in Pakistan to achieve this award. The award is designed to promote greater transparency in microfinance institutions’ social performance and recognizes transparency in social performance reporting. “We are delighted on achieving this distinction which reaffirms our commitment to supporting  low income workers and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and create new employment in a socially responsible manner” said the CEO of KMBL, M. Mudassar Aqil. Kashf Microfinance Bank Limited has been committed to the cause of social and environment development since its inception in 2008. The bank serves its mission of poverty alleviation through job creation by giving enterprise loans to micro and small business owners. Since its inception the bank has disbursed Rs. 3.2 billion loans and created over 150,000 new jobs.  The bank also provides savings and deposit products with a special focus on small savers and entrepreneurs Taken from: http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=149998

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

Creating Opportunity through Microfinance

“To me it seems that to give happiness is a far nobler goal that to attain it: and that what we exist for is much more a matter of relations to others than a matter of individual progress: much more a matter of helping others to heaven than of getting there ourselves.”
- Lewis Carroll

“Every day you have the opportunity to learn and experience some-thing and some-one new. Seize the opportunity. Learn and experience everything you can, and use it to change the world.”                           Rodney Williams

Microfinance Giant Launches Venture Capital Fund For East Africa

Accion, an international microfinance and investment firm, has launched Venture Lab, a $10 million investment vehicle which will provide seed capital and management support to financial inclusion startups worldwide, with a particular focus on East Africa and India.
In a press release, Accion says they will show a preference for companies which have “completed research and development and are at the pilot/first-revenue stage.” The initiative is looking to make 20 investments over the next three years and will invest anywhere between $100,000 and $300,000 in startups focused on mobile financial services, credit underwriting/delivery, Internet and social media, embedded financial services and new technology for bottom-of-the-pyramid finance.

For the rest of the article visit: 

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2012/04/04/microfinance-giant-launches-venture-capital-firm-for-east-africa/

Each individual person is very important. Each person has tremendous potential. She or he alone can influence the lives of others within the communities, nations, within and beyond her or his own time.
                                                                                                              Muhammad Yunus 

“Helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”                                                                                  Rachel Naomi Remen

Microfinance Helps Haiti Earthquake Victims Recover

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.  ~Robert F. Kennedy

International Buffet!

Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment that enables us to discover the limits of our potential, we will never know what we have inside of us.
- Muhammad Yunus 

Chinese Proverb: 
If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

Microfinance organization formed by UA students makes first loan to tornado victim

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- In the fall of 2009, a group of University of Alabama Honors College students began an initiative to grant small loans to low-income borrowers in rural Alabama.

This week, Forza Financial granted its first loan to Katrina Rollins, an Alberta business owner who lost her Curl Shoppe salon in the April 27 tornado.

Rollins, who left her shop just before the tornado struck, is now closer to re-establishing her business thanks to a $3,500 loan from the nonprofit organization.

“After last April, I was too discouraged to find help,” Rollins said.  “Now I’m better, and this loan will help me get back on my feet.”

The rest of the article can be found at : 

http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/2012/03/microfinance_organization_form.html

                                             

"When combined with information and communication technologies, microcredit can unleash new opportunities for the world's poorest entrepreneurs and thereby revitalize the village economies they serve."

Madeleine K. Albright and John Doerr, May 2004

"It is impossible to realize our goals while discriminating against half the human race. As study after study has taught us, there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women." 


                                                                                              - Kofi Annan, 2006 

"Wars against nations are fought to change maps; wars against poverty are fought to map change."
                                                                                                                           -- Muhammad Ali 

Princy Ann Abraham Log #5

It is so easy to get caught in the drama that consumes the life of a college student. Graduating seniors are often anxious and worried about graduate school admissions and recruiting for new jobs. Some students worry about relocating back in with their guardians or moving into a new city. Whatever the issue may be, students are frequently consumed in their own mini “dilemmas.”

I find myself and my friends upset over things that we should feel grateful and privileged for having. Sometimes we fuss about not getting into one graduate school over another when we should realize that we are lucky to have gotten into some or to even have the opportunity to apply. Sometimes we are distressed over having to move back in with our parents after graduation, when we should be grateful that we have the option to do so.

Many, if not all of our borrowers, face a different reality than many students at St. John’s University. Their concerns are for the immediate well-being of themselves and their families. They are worried about whether they will have enough food for all the children in their family or if a child will survive from an illness that he or she has contracted.

These are the stories and ideas that I wish to engage callers in during this year’s GLOBE phone campaign. After meeting with Scott VanDeusen, who told us the importance of specifically explaining what GLOBE is to our callers, I have tried to imagine the situation of our borrowers as if it were my own life. During the campaign I hope to provide a concrete idea of who our borrowers are and the success stories that have been evident through donated funds.

Unfortunately for our customers their options in life are more limited than our own, but GLOBE managers and donors have the power to change that.

- Marketing and Fundraising Team 

"When combined with information and communication technologies, microcredit can unleash new opportunities for the world's poorest entrepreneurs and thereby revitalize the village economies they serve."

Madeleine K. Albright and John Doerr, May 2004

"Poverty is the denial of all human rights." Muhammad Yunus

Bake Sale 3/15/12

Ana Morales Log #1

 

Since many years ago, a quote of Mother Theresa has been stuck in my head, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.” This is the same attitude I get whenever there is any type of help needed. That is one of the main reasons why I joined GLOBE, knowing that one loan provided to one person can help out people living in poverty. We might not be able to provide hundreds of loans, but one at a time can slowly change the world. Although this is only the second week of class, I feel greatly satisfied with what the program does and I hope I can contribute to the best of my ability.

Last week, we discussed about different levels of poverty, which can be easily distinguished by comparing different countries. I was raised in Mexico, which is considered a developing country, so my views of poverty are certainly different than those of the rest of my classmates with different ethnic backgrounds. When I think about poverty, I think about lack of basic needs. Imagine not being able to wear proper clothing or not being able to have food in the table. Even worse, not knowing where you are going to spend the night. Coming to New York City has given me a different view of poverty, but I believe it is the third world countries that need the most help. That is why most of the outstanding loans are in Congo, Kenya, and Nigeria. As a class, hopefully we can provide more loans this semester, and I believe we can accomplish this goal and much more.

Along with the rest of the Accounting, Program Audits and Enterprise Development team, we have developed goals for this semester. Being part of this program will definitively involve a lot of outside class commitment, but it is definitively worth it. Just like Muhammad Yunus said, people deserve a “dignified root out of poverty.”

Some say that one thing leads to another; others say it is destiny.  Whatever the truth is, I believe there is a reason for me to be part of the GLOBE class of Spring 2012. Now that I am in it, I have nothing else to do but to give my best to this program and start changing the world with my actions.

- Accounting Team