Half the Sky Movement: The Game

Half the Sky Movement: The Game was inspired by the book by the same title. It is an excellent resource to role play a character that helps her family and her society. Check out the game by clicking the link below. 

https://www.facebook.com/HalftheGame

One loan can change a person's life. Click on the video to see how. See how $700 transformed Dorothy's life.

Everyday we are planting new dreams.

Everyday we are planting new dreams.

Make Things Happen!

Let's make change happen today, tomorrow, and always!

The Living Room- Episode 1: GLOBE

Check out GLOBE on "The Living Room." Learn more about what we do in GLOBE and what GLOBE has to offer!

http://www.stjohns.edu/campus/queens/clubs/the_living_room.stj

Welcome to our new Internet video series called "The Living Room". This is a video series where we feature our very own Johnnies doing interesting things on campus right in our D'Angelo Center Living Room.

The Living Room - Episode 1: GLOBE

GLOBE is a student-managed academic program at St.John's University, the Peter J. Tobin College of Business, that provides loans to the entrepreneurs in the developing world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1765pNP_xLk

Featured links:STJ: http://www.stjohns.edu/GLOBE

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/STJGLOBE
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/GLOBESTJ

 Want to be featured on The Living Room?

If you would life to be featured on The Living Room, please contact Frank Jerome atjeromef@stjohns.edu or like D'Angelo Center on Facebook and message us there.

Enterprise Development, Program Impact Audits and Budgeting Team: Log #1 by Mina Salib

When I first joined GLOBE I was unsure about what was required of me, but I was sure that it was something that I wanted to be a part of. What I did know is that GLOBE is a microfinance lending organization that works to help people actively get out of poverty and I knew I had to get involved. In the summer of 2010 I served in Upper Egypt, which is home to some of the poorest people in the world. This experience allowed me to see first-hand how devastating poverty can be. After this trip I made myself a promise -- that I would do everything in my power to help those who are less fortunate than me. Then I heard about GLOBE and realized that is exactly what this organization has done and continues to do. It has only been a few weeks into the semester and I can already tell how impactful and life-changing this course will be. The amount I have learned about microfinance and the impact it has had in peoples’ lives is priceless, and the very fact that I have a direct hand in helping someone possibly raise themselves out of poverty is so rewarding. This semester I have the honor of being the liaison for the Enterprise Development Team, which means I am in constant contact with my team and other teams to make sure everything is running smoothly. I also have the responsibility of making sure my team stays on task and meets all its deadlines, which I have found is not a problem because in GLOBE you work with such talented and responsible people. As the Enterprise Development and Budgeting Team it is our responsibility to keep track of our budgets and revenue while also developing new ways to expand GLOBE’s reach across the world. With this in mind, the semester started and we began to compile a list of the goals we wanted to reach by the end of the semester. One of our major goals was figuring out how we should measure success as an organization. When we give out loans to entrepreneurs we want to evaluate if they were successful in the way they used the money we loaned them. Another major goal was to make business plans for potential entrepreneurs in some of the countries that we will be expanding into in the next year. We would like to give these entrepreneurs guidelines to make sure they are successful in their business ventures. These objectives are in addition to properly budgeting for GLOBE as a whole and translating our loan applications into Spanish, French, and Arabic. As you can see even though the semester just began we are very busy at GLOBE and all this work is done because we love it. We love the impact and effect that this program has on people that are so worthy of it. Most people are not in poverty because they want to be, but it is because nobody has given them a chance to get out; GLOBE is that organization that gives them that chance and I am honored to be a part of it.

A Conversation With: Muhammad Yunus

Interesting Q & A article on Muhammad Yunus, the economist who founded Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank. He visited Mumbai recently where he spoke to India Ink about his vision of a social businesses. 

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/a-conversation-with-muhammad-yunus/?ref=muhammadyunus

A Conversation With: Muhammad Yunus

By NEHA THIRANI

Roger Richter for The Grameen Creative LabMuhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank.

Muhammad Yunus, the economist who founded Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank, visited Mumbai recently where he spoke to India Ink about his vision of “social businesses,” his forced departure from Grameen and the recent controversies that have dogged micro-finance in India and elsewhere.

An edited, condensed version of the interview follows:

Q.

The microfinance industry has gone through an existential crisis in the last few years. Why did the industry fall from grace?

A.

See, it’s because everybody jumped at it, because it’s such a well known, such a respected thing. The moment you say microfinance everybody wants to help you. So, they took advantage of that and turned it around to make money for themselves. That’s where all the problems were created. It is not the basic concept of microcredit that has a problem; when it is dedicated to the poor people, to help them, solve their problems.

In the business world growth is the key word, if you want to put an I.P.O. and so forth. They say, ‘Oh growth rate is so high, fantastic, we’ll do it all over India.’ You are attracting people to make lot of money with your impressive growth rate. So in order to show growth rate in your performance record you constantly need to push people to do things.

Q.

What was is about the circumstances in Andhra Pradesh, which caused microfinance to fail there? What was different about that state?

A.

SKS [Microfinance]. The key is that the whole thing was triggered by SKS. They were the ones who kind of overdid things in a big way. The aggressiveness that it brought into the picture created all the problems. And then he [Vikram Akula, the founder and former chairman of SKS] made personal money out of it. That also irritated the people. That you are saying that you are helping the poor people but I see you are making personal money out of this.

Several other reasons as well. One is overcrowding. Andhra Pradesh was a leading microfinance state, if I’m not wrong almost a third of microcredit in India is in Andhra Pradesh. So that’s kind of put everybody in the picture, all the companies, all the MFI’s that operate. That created overcrowding, which led to overlapping; same person given loans by several people.

And then politicians got into the picture. Because they said this is too much, we’ll give you cheaper. Even some politicians probably said they would give you interest free loans and so on and so forth. They asked not to pay back. All this happened within one state and created a big mess.

Q.

Could share your thoughts about being forced out of Grameen Bank?

A.

Well, this is kind of a painful thing. What can I say more than that? … It was totally unnecessary. It makes no sense. There is no meaning to it. But it puts Grameen Bank at risk, and that’s what worries us.

My departure is not an issue. I already told the government that I want to go. I said can you put me as the chairman of the board so it’ll be easy for people to accept my departure because I’m not completely leaving. I’m simply moving from an executive position to a non-executive position.

So, government has another plan. They removed me and still they couldn’t find a replacement. We’re worried about the future of the bank. Because after all this bank is owned by poor people. The borrowers own 97 percent of the shares of the bank and the government owns only 3 percent.

Q.

How would you characterize your relationship with Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh?

A.

She never explained so I don’t understand what went on, just speculation of various types in the press. One is that she feels I’m a political threat, I don’t know why I’m a political threat. This is again speculation. She never said that I’m a political threat. Probably she would say, “Why should I think he’s a political threat, he’s not in politics. Who is he? He is nothing.”

You cannot explain. We’ve never had a face-to-face meeting, although I’ve tried to seek her appointment so I could see her, but it never happened.

Q.

In 2007, you considered joining Bangladeshi politics by announcing a new party named Nagorik Shakti, or Citizen Power. What made you change your mind?

A.

That was very special circumstances because there was a caretaker government running the country at the time. They put all the top leaders in jail, including Hasina. So, there was a political vacuum, both parties who were in power before disintegrated because many of their leaders were in jail. And elections were coming.

So people were getting nervous, what will happen, who will run the country. So, people kept coming to me – all the leading people – that you should join politics so that you can lead the next election. I said, I’m not a politician, I don’t know. And they put pressure and finally I said okay, I’ll join politics and I’ll create a party.

And then gradually people said what kind of political party and so on, I tried to answer. Within two months I announced that no I’m not going to create a party. That’s all – I never created a party.

Q.

What are you working on now?

A.

Social business. There’s lots of new ventures that have come in. Some are still in the discussion stage, formulation stage and at that time I’m not supposed to mention names. Some we have announced. One is Watami with a famous restaurant chain in Japan. What we are trying to do is to create a social business in Bangladesh, a joint venture to create restaurants for common people. Good, healthy food at affordable prices so that people don’t have to opt for food that is unhealthy and unhygienic.

Another one we are doing with Felissimo, a Japanese textile company. They use handloom products of Bangladesh in other products they make. For instance, they make handbags; they put a piece of handloom on top of it. So it will help promote Bangladeshi handloom.

Another one is Uniqlo, one of the largest chain stores in Japans. We produce sanitary napkins for women in the villages who never used sanitary napkins, and as a result are prone to a lot of infections and so on. They are produced in Bangladesh with a joint venture, and made very cheap, reusable, and easily available. We are already selling these door to door.

Q.

Given the recent controversy, do you wish you had done anything differently at Grameen?

A.

No, I don’t think so. Grameen Bank has done the right thing. The thing is with hindsight you can always say I could have done this a little better, or that, but in general what we have done I think we did the right thing.

The only thing probably I would say, is if we could help the second generation to all become job givers faster. If we could expedite that, focus on that as a separate initiative I would feel much better. But at least we brought the first generation here, and the second generation we have really taken it way out from poverty.

The University of St Thomas Social Entrepreneurship Program

Finance member Catherine Sims found this great website of a school that is following the same mission as we are here with GLOBE. Good to know that there are more people just like us.

http://www.stthom.edu/Public/index.asp?page_ID=4398&Page_Not_Found=1

The University of St Thomas Social Entrepreneurship Program Educating Students, Empowering IndividualsOur Mission  Social Entrepreneurship Program, SEP, is a service-learning program in which students have the opportunity to eradicate poverty through allocating micro credit loans given to the impoverished. The SEP is a student run organization. The micro credit loans are allocated to the impoverished in third world countries by the students. In doing this, the members promote principles of freedom, fairness, and democracy. SEP works to generate social change by calling on student, university press, Houston communities, and global communities to participate in our efforts to eradicate poverty around the world.  "Poverty Alleviation Through International Collaboration" The Educational Experience United we can overcome poverty with dignity  Social Entrepreneurship Program serves as a mechanism to further UST’s mission as a Catholic Institution of higher education. It provides UST students with opportunity to combat global poverty by incorporating:      1. Theories and practices      2. Learning about other cultures and religions      3. Promoting understanding      4. Helping to emphasize our similarities      5. Contributing to a global dialogue of peace and respect      6. Helping the world’s working poor to achieve economic       independence All Students are welcome to partake in our efforts since every student’s effort helps contract a more just world. How to get involved. Poverty Alleviation  Why does poverty exist?      Poverty exists due to the insufficient opportunities to improve      the lives of the poor, and lack of modern world tools. How does Social Entrepreneurship Program help the impoverished?      SEP provides those suffering from poverty with financial      capital through a micro credit loan. Loan Receivers 75% of Social Entrepreneurship Program loans are given to women. Women receive more funding because they are more economically active and create financial means for sustainable development. Businesses run by the women have positive impact on their family and surrounding community. Ultimately, the women help future generations through properly investing their loans in their business and creating revenue. In turn, the women use their revenue to provide their family with education, shelter, and other essentials. This would not have been possible without the help of our SEP donors. Contact Us       Email: microcredit@stthom.edu      Phone: (713) 525 3530      Mail:          University of St. Thomas Social Entrepreneurship Program          3800 Montrose, Houston, TX 77006          Facebook: www.facebook.com/ust.microcredit