Ripple Effect Microfinance Fund
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
rippleeffect (The Fund) is a proposed private equity investment fund being sponsored by Lonestep Partners. The Fund will act as a financial partner and intermediary to Microfinance Institutes (mfis) and small SME Banks. These institutions are engaged in providing inclusive financial services by delivering micro loans and other basic services to the poor and under-privileged, often classified as the un-bankable. The long-term goal of the Fund and the mfis it will serve with is to mitigate poverty in the emerging countries of Europe, CIS, MENASA and ASEAN regions. The Fund aims to achieve a double bottom line impact, including suitable risk-adjusted financial returns, as well as sustained social impact returns.
Muhammad Yunus on poverty
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
Excerpt from an interview with the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, in which he discusses the unacceptability of allowing people to remain in poverty. See the full interview at nobelprize.org
Muhammad Yunus
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
A SONG TRIBUTE TO MUHAMMAD YUNUS Lyrics: Rashidul Bari Vocal: Androw Kissore Music: Imaon Saha Produced By: Aporbo Cholocitro
Crazy Quote Wednesday!
March 31, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
“Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?”
John Mendoza
“Whatever I want to be known for I need to be doing.”- Unknown
“Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.”
Benjamin Franklin“Some days it’s not worth gnawing through the straps.” - Unknown
“Insanity: a perfectly rational response to an insane world.” - Unknown
“I have a grip on reality, just not this particular one.” - Unknown
“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”
- Albert Einstein“My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you’re ugly too.”
- Rodney Dangerfield“There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”
Oscar Levant“Sometimes we reach the boiling point before we realize that the stove is on. Become aware of your feelings – keep your eye on the stove.”
Karen Dougherty“Life is a short, warm moment and death is a long cold rest. You get your chance to try in the twinkling of an eye: Eighty years, with luck, or even less.”
Pink Floyd“Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.”
Carl Gustav Jung
Beth
2007 Skoll World Forum - Professor Muhammad Yunus
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus, speaks at the 2007 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. Introduction by Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation.
Micro Finance Singapore - I
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
Introduction by Vivek Singh, President, Micro Finance Singapore
SKS Microfinance’s Vikram Akula on Mobile Banking
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
Vikram Akula, founder and CEO of SKS Microfinance, launched the company in 1998 to offer small loans to very poor borrowers. Some 10 years later, SKS has become India’s fastest growing microfinance institution (MFI), with more than two million borrowers. In the next two years, Akula would like SKS Microfinance, whose backers include venture capitalists such as Sequoia Capital, to grow to eight million borrowers — which would make it the world’s largest microfinance lender, surpassing Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank. In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton at the recent Wharton India Economic Forum, Akula spoke about emerging trends in microfinance.
Muhammad Yunus: Creating a Poverty-Free World (preview)
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
Preview of Muhammad Yunus: Creating a Poverty-Free World - one of 16 dvds created by Ashoka’s Global Academy for Social Entrepreneurship. Dr. Yunus, recently awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, offers his insights into what it will take to completely eradicate global poverty. He invisions a new kind of capitalism, and demonstrates how his creations, Grameen Bank and the Grameen Family of Companies, offer viable solutions to previously intractable challenges. Produced by Rooy Media LLC for Ashoka. To purchase the films, please visit dvd.ashoka.org.
Bugging Out: 7 Amazing Extreme Insect Close-Ups
March 31, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Delana in Animals & Habitats, Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Whatever it is you’re thinking about at 3:00 am, it’s probably got nothing to do with insects. That’s not the case for Miroslaw Swietek, a Polish photographer who has made a habit of sneaking out in the middle of the night to catch candid photographs of bugs that look like sleepy, exotic jewels.
Swietek is a physiotherapist by day, but for the past two and a half years he has been developing his interest in amateur photography. Insects provide an interesting subject, but Swietek isn’t content to simply snap pics of frolicking grasshoppers; he stalks them in the middle of the night in the forest next to his village.
Taking a flashlight, his camera with flash, and a tripod into the dark forest, Swietek sets out to find insects to capture. Because he hunts them at night, when they are in their resting state, they don’t immediately run away upon spotting the photographer. And also because these pictures are taken at night, the insects are covered in delicate drops of dew.
The dew drops make the photographs’ subjects look almost like they are encased in crystals or diamonds. Their faces look strange and alien-like so close-up, and the effect is only increased by the distorting effect of the tiny droplets of water all over their bodies.
Swietek says that he has to hunt the insects because they’re very hard to find. But when he finds one and manages to catch a post-midnight snapshot of it in its natural environment, it is a very rewarding moment. But Swietek isn’t always sure what he’s looking at; the dew adds such a strange element that it’s difficult to tell just what type of insect he’s captured. The photographer has a book at home to help him identify the insects he photographs.
Besides being stunning examples of nature photography, these photographs give us a rare look into the sleeping hours of bugs. Caught off guard in their natural homes, the insects appear gentle, and even cute. But you have to imagine that they’re never too happy about being woken from a sound sleep by a giant camera just inches away from them.
Source: Daily Mail
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If this geological oddity were not interesting enough, an amazing and nearly-extinct species found on it is just as strange and mysterious if not more-so. 1 Comment - Click Here to Read More
Mohammed Yunus on microcredit-2/3
March 31, 2010 by · View Comments
Nobel Laureate and “Banker to the Poor” Muhammad Yunus on Micro-Lending, Its Critics and the Bush Administration’s Negative Impact on Global Poverty Muhammad Yunus won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering a microcredit program that helps hundreds of thousands of impoverished Bangladeshis—mostly women—by providing small unsecured loans, which are then repaid. He is author of the new book Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. [includes rush transcript]
