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Grameen Foundation E-Newsletter


		Table of Contents

In This Issue: » Giving Voice to a Mother’s Love » Winning Victories in the War on Poverty » 17 New Ways to Fight Poverty » Global Giving, Local Impact » Helping – in Their Own Words

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In the News

» Qualcomm Honored at Grameen Foundation Benefit (April 20): Qualcomm Chariman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs accepts Grameen Foundation’s Humanitarian Award at our annual New York benefit event. (Business Journals)

» Makerere students get practical skills in software development (April 11): Grameen Foundation partners with IT firm ThoughtWorks to bring practical training to software engineering students in Uganda. (New Vision, Uganda)

» Making Your Employees Your Strongest Link (April 2): Peg Ross, director of Grameen Foundation’s Human Capital Center, explains the value of good “people practices” for MFIs. (Microfinance Gateway)

» Microfinance Helps Haiti Earthquake Victims Recover(April 2): Grameen Foundation’s Progress out of Poverty Index™ (PPI™) is helping Haitian MFI Fonkoze serve the country’s poor in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. (Cisco’s YouTube channel)

On Our Blog

» Last-Mile Mobile Money Agents Bridging the Gap:Ali Ndiwalan, Research Lead for Grameen Foundation’s AppLab Money Incubator, discusses the ways that informal “last-mile” agents are facilitating mobile money transactions in rural Uganda.

» Why Skills Matter: The Importance of Cross-Sector Collaboration: Rhia Bakshi, a Bankers without Borders® volunteer in Washington, comments on the increasing importance of collaboration as a strategy for fighting poverty.

» Falling in Love with Microfinance: Bankers without Borders® volunteer Tânia Sousa describes her experience evaluating the impact of a microsavings program in India.

» Power for CKWs in Uganda: Husband and wife BwB volunteers Chris Smith and Gillian Evans explain the benefits of solar charging units used by Community Knowledge Workers to tackle “information poverty” in Uganda.

		Stories

Giving Voice to a Mother’s Love When Elizabeth Remington began a conversation with another mother at a child’s birthday party, she didn’t know that she’d leave the party feeling profoundly moved and inspired. The mom at the party happened to be Jennifer Meehan, Grameen Foundation’s CEO for the Asia region, and not only did her description of Grameen Foundation’s work strike a chord with Elizabeth, but she admired how Jennifer – a mother of two – was able to balance her home life with her passionate commitment to helping the poor. A strong advocate for women’s issues, Elizabeth was at a crossroads in her own life. She had stopped working as a radio broadcaster to bring up her own three children in Hong Kong several years earlier and was now looking for a new purpose. She decided to call Jennifer to volunteer her services. By the end of their first lunch meeting, the “Grameen Foundation Experience” in Hong Kong was born. Over several months, Elizabeth worked with other Grameen Foundation volunteers on the gala event, which was held last November. That experience brought her even closer to the people Grameen Foundation helps – especially poor women – and led her to an opportunity to volunteer her broadcast skills. Elizabeth is the voice for a new Grameen Foundation public service announcement, which begins airing online and on broadcast channels in Asia starting May 1 – just in time for Mother’s Day. She narrates the story of another mother, Ibu Nuranenah, who is part of Grameen Foundation’s Mobile Microfranchise initiative in Indonesia. Nuranenah is using the additional income she earns through the program to run a small school for the street children in her community. Now that Elizabeth is herself preparing to move to Indonesia, she is hoping to meet some of the mothers whose drive to climb out of poverty has been so inspiring to her. Ibu Nuranenah is part of a network of 14,000 mobile microfranchisees, 82 percent of whom are women, who are currently serving more than 1.2 million people across Indonesia. Watch her story online. Back to the Top Winning Victories in the War on Poverty If you're looking for the June 2012 article "A Muddy Hole Brings Unexpected New Life," please click here. We apologize for any confusion due to misdirected links. There’s good news for supporters of Grameen Foundation – like you! – who care deeply about fighting poverty. According to the most recent statistics from the World Bank Research Department, as of 2008 both the number and share of the population living on income of less than $1.25 per day (at 2005 prices) has fallen in every part of the world. Those statistics suggest that the world is well ahead of schedule in achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal to cut extreme global poverty in half between 1990-2015. But a closer look at the figures shows we can’t relax our efforts just yet. Nearly half of the reduction in poverty came from China alone. There are now an estimated 1.3 billion people who live on less than $1.25 per day. 1.1 billion of these live outside of China, and unfortunately, the 1.1 billion figure has hardly changed between 1981 and 2008. And most of the progress has been among the poorest of the poor – the total number of people living on less than $2 per day has decreased only modestly. What should we take away from these statistics? First, and most important, that poverty can be reduced. When given an opportunity, many poor people – including the poorest – will take it and transform their own lives. Secondly, much more work remains to be done in putting such opportunities in the hands of the poor – and, of course, that’s where Grameen Foundation is making a difference. With your support, Grameen Foundation can give those most in need the hand up they deserve to break the cycle of poverty and improve their lives. Back to the Top 17 New Ways to Fight Poverty Ending global poverty may seem like a monumental task, but there are now 17 ways to join our effort – and gain a new experience of your own. Through May 1, you can participate in Grameen Foundation’s online auction. With 17 auction items and experiences up for grabs – ranging from a shopping spree at Bloomingdales, to internships in Kenya, Peru, or the Philippines, to a seven-night stay on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia – now is the perfect time to renew your commitment to empowering the poor while having some fun of your own. All proceeds from the auction go directly to our life-changing work around the world. The auction caps off Grameen Foundation’s Second Annual Benefit, which was held April 19 in New York City and raised more than $300,000 for our work empowering the poor in the developing world. More than 200 guests gathered to mark Grameen Foundation’s 15th anniversary and honor Qualcomm, our 2012 Humanitarian Awardee. Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, accepted the award for its Wireless Reach™ initiative, which empowers underserved communities through wireless technology. For the past five years, the Wireless Reach team has worked with Grameen Foundation’s Mobile Microfranchise initiative in Indonesia, which has helped increase the income of many thousands of poor women as they serve customers in their communities. You can see photos from this year’s Spring Benefit on our Facebook page. And remember – our annual online auction ends May 1, so please visit and bid today! Back to the Top Global Giving, Local Impact We did it! Thanks to your help in getting the word out, we have earned a permanent spot on GlobalGiving.org, an online fundraising site that gives supporters a chance to fund projects at reputable nonprofits and receive reports directly from the field on their progress. We had to raise $4,000 from at least 50 donors in April – Global Giving’s “challenge month” – and so far, we’ve exceeded our goal! There are only two days left in April, so please continue to spread the word about our featured project – the Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) initiative, which supports poor farmers in rural Uganda by providing them with up-to-date, accurate information about weather, market prices, and how to best care for crops and animals. The more donations we receive, the more chances we have to win bonus money from the site’s corporate sponsors during this special challenge month, enabling us to help even more poor farmers and their families. Even small donations can make a difference. A $10 gift can help ensure fast repair and replacement of a CKW’s specialized smartphone, while a $50 gift can help us register 300 poor farmers to receive information from CKWs. Please take five minutes to donate now. Back to the Top Helping – in Their Own Words “I was really looking for some meaningful opportunities to give back and to be involved,” says Nitin Sharma, now an MBA candidate at The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, of his initial interest in Grameen Foundation’s Bankers without Borders® (BwB) program. It provided just the opportunity Nitin was seeking to leverage his business knowledge in a skills-based volunteer assignment with an organization that, as he notes, focuses on “doing things in a scalable and sustainable way.” For one assignment, Nitin helped develop a business model to enable BwB to sustainably run and manage its operations, without relying solely on donations. This is part of a longer-term plan to help the program cover a portion of its costs by charging nominal service fees to the organizations that benefit from its volunteers’ services. In addition, he traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to observe the day-to-day activities of a microfinance institution that works with Grameen Foundation. There he met with potential loan clients, and gained an appreciation for the life-changing opportunities that small loans can provide. Nitin considers BwB a great opportunity for professionals to escape the corporate environment and “really go out there in the field and see how you can use your skills” to contribute to financially-empowering programs around the world. Nitin’s story is the final installment in our series on Bankers without Borders volunteers. To find out more about the program and how you can apply your skills to help fight poverty, please visit the BwB website. Back to the Top

About

Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit organization, helps the world's poorest people lift themselves out of poverty by providing financing, technology support and management strategies to the local organizations that serve them. It also spearheads technology initiatives that create new microbusiness opportunities for the poor and improve the poor's access to health, agricultural and financial information and other services. Founded in 1997, Grameen Foundation has offices in Washington, DC; Seattle, WA; Colombia; Ghana; Hong Kong; the Philippines; and Uganda. Microfinance pioneer Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is a founding member of its Board of Directors, and now serves as director emeritus.

May 2012 E-Newsletter

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