Tag Archive: microfinance

An interview with Pragya Nandini: student, activist, changemaker

Today, I’m happy to introduce Pragya Nandini, a student passionate about social change who writes about current events and her interests in the social sector over at Bites of News. This is one part of a series of interviews I hope to do featuring young changemakers and non-profiteers (if you’d like to take part and…

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Two roads diverge: two paths to thinking about social change

Recently, through a particularly enlightening conversation with a friend, I realized that there are, essentially, two pathways or methods of thinking about social change and development approaches. There is the “capitalistic” mode of thinking, and the “social justice” mode of thinking. While this is, essentially, the split that so starkly separates the Democrats from the…

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Be the change: Empowering Women Through Microfinance, by Grace Boyle

When Akhila asked me to write about a social cause I was passionate about I was eager to join in. I consider myself a philanthropist, but I often spread myself thin. I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders and am sometimes (too) empathetic to the point where it hurts every piece of…

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What “The Duchess” can teach us about women’s rights

A couple of days back, I was on a plane from London to the U.S. and I had the opportunity to sit back, relax, and watch movies. I ended up watching the Kiera Knightley flick, The Duchess – and I was definitely not expecting what I saw. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a…

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Feature Friday: Beyond Good Intentions

Here’s the second installment of Feature Friday this week: Beyond Good Intentions. Beyond Good Intentions is a wonderful ten-part film series investigating the effectiveness of international aid. According to the website: The Beyond Good Intentions film series follows the round-the-world journey of first-time filmmaker, Tori Hogan, as she investigates how international aid can be more…

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Feature Friday: United Prosperity

Today I want to feature United Prosperity, a truly innovative organization that takes the concept of microfinance to the next level. Most microfinance institutions (MFIs) simply provide small loans to poor entrepreneurs who want to pull themselves out of poverty through their small businesses. However, this approach does not strengthen the local banking system or…

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