Read a Chapter, and Pass It On.
Banker to the Poor:
Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by Muhammad Yunus
Chapter Four:
The Stool Makers of Jobra Village
In 1976, I began visiting the poorest households in Jobra to see if I could help them directly in any way. There were three parts to the village: a Muslim, a Hindu, and a Buddhist section. When I visited the Buddhist section, I would often take one of my students, Dipal Chandra Barua, a native of the Buddhist section, along with me. Otherwise, a colleague, Professor H. I. Latifee, would usually accompany me. He knew most of the families and had a natural talent for making villagers feel at ease. » Continue reading
Entrepreneur-Ship Sites for College Students
An excellent starting place for budding entrepreneurs is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. You'll find college sites, professional associations, student organizations, student blogs, podcasts, business plan resources, publications, and documents categorized by discipline.
The University Network for Social Entrepreneurship works with professors and researchers, practitioners, and students to develop social entrepreneurship as a vocation and carry its principles into other disciplines and sectors. It is designed to be a resource hub and an action-oriented discussion forum to expand social entrepreneurship education and participation around the world.
Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Ashoka Fellows are provided with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.
Institute for Global Communications provides advocacy and support tips for non-profits.
Social Edge is a global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources.
Thanks to a nod from the Nobel committee, the word "microfinance" entered the global vernacular in 2007. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Muhammed Yunus proved that even the most destitute individuals may be capable of taking charge of their futures, once provided with adequate means. In the case of microfinance, those means consist of an innovative combination of money and social support.
Much of the world discovered microfinance this past year through news clips of Yunus’ beaming eyes and editorial articles on this booming system of crediting the poor. A psychology major uninterested in anything “finance,” I found myself unintentionally ahead of this fad when I stumbled across real-life microfinance while attempting to take a break from the academic world.
I decided to study abroad in Senegal during my junior year of college, quite unaware of microfinance’s expanding global success story. » Continue reading
