Do you want to know what a Grameen Foundation Fellowship is really like? Join us for a live "Meet the Fellows" Q&A session!
During the "Meet the Fellows" sessions we will live stream our fellows speaking about their experiences so far and taking questions submitted by interested candidates, like you. Below is the schedule for the sessions:
Since arriving in early September for my GF Fellowship in Nairobi, I've been volunteering on weekends through a youth tutoring program called ROCK (Reaching Out with Compassion in Kibera).
I was bouncing around on the back of a moto, mud splashing my legs, racing around mountain bends, admiring the breathtaking views of green mountains stacked upon green mountains, the coffee fields creating maze-like designs on the mountain landscape, when I looked back at Miguel, our Field Deployment and Support Specialist, a huge smile on my face.
Good news prevails this week on What We’ve Been Reading! Ethiopia’s latest data on its GDP and economic growth are incredibly promising for the future of the country. For the 2012-2013 fiscal year, the Ethiopian economy grew by an impressive 7.5%, which is greater than the average growth of sub-Saharan African economies of 4.9%.
Some great organizations are looking for volunteers for their programs, including Grameen-Jameel, Al Amal Bank, and Pearl S. Buck International! If you are interested in volunteering remotely for a foundation in the United Arab Emirates or onsite at a bank in Yemen, be sure to read more about these projects and apply!
To gauge how fast Nairobi, Kenya is growing I could look up at the glass and steel rising to fill the empty spaces in its skyline but I spend more of my time looking down at my feet.
February 2nd-8th is International Development Week in Canada! To celebrate the efforts of the Canadian government and private organizations to fight global poverty, various media stations and websites based in Canada are highlighting some of the work they have done in the last few years.
When I wasn’t battling Dengue Fever (very appropriately nicknamed “Breakbone Fever”) or escaping from a collapsing apartment, I jumped right into the deep end at work. I’m lucky to be joining the Latin America office at a time when a host of projects benefitting smallholder farmers are starting. Our project partners span from government agencies to cooperatives and agricultural organizations.
Since we are presenting our global mHealth and mAgriculture strategies in just one month to the GF Board, my work schedule has been crazy lately. Daily calls with the West Coast (10 hrs behind). Working evenings. Working weekends. Whoever said the not-for-profit life would be easier was lying!
When I started researching logistics for my fellowship, I was disappointed to learn that Grameen's Kenya office is not located in Nairobi's Central Business District, but rather in the suburban area of Kilimani, along Ngong (pronounced "gong") Road.
I really have to get used to this drip, drip exposition of life as a blogger.
In a previous life I lived, the discipline and schedule of a weekly deadline as a newspaper turn-around consultant meant that I had to concentrate my thoughts to write on schedule. Now I oftentimes plain forget that like a chia pet, I have to feed and water my blog.
For my fellowship, I am posted in the Washington DC office. In my three months here, I have enjoyed getting to know the staff and working on projects in the Financial Services department. And while I appreciate how readily I was integrated into the work flow and entrusted with substantive writing and editing assignments, I was really looking forward to my first trip to the field.
For my first blog post as a Grameen Foundation Fellow, I had planned to introduce myself and my work in the Latin American Caribbean (LAC) office. I was going to provide information about my studies and recent graduation from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies with a Masters in International Development.
