“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.