Where We Work: Asia
Afghanistan
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 200
Skill: Finance
Date Completed: June 2013
The School of Leadership, Afghanistan, (SOLA) is a small American-based and Afghan-led non-profit working to expand educational and leadership opportunities for young Afghan women, with aggressive expansion plans. A team of Mastercard employees volunteered through BwB to advise and implement best financial to help SOLA reach its goals.
Bangladesh
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 146
Skill: Finance
Date Completed: March 2010
Bankers without Borders’ volunteers provided financial expertise for new Danone projects, supporting the danone communities' mission of bringing health through food to the largest number of people. In Bangladesh established a model farm of 200-300 cows to showcase ways to improve productivity and help improve the revenues of the neighboring milk farmers. In addition, volunteers also created a social business model to distribute essential packaged goods to poor rural communities
Cambodia
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 80
Skill: Research and M&E
Date Completed: July 2013
A Bankers without Borders volunteer traveled to Cambodia to conduct an assessment to certify Thaneakea Phum as an approved user of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI).
The Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) is a simple and accurate tool that measures poverty levels of groups and individuals. Using the PPI, microfinance institutions can identify poverty levels of clients to better determine their needs, which programs are most effective in serving their needs, and how quickly clients leave poverty. Organizations around the world are using the PPI to measure their clients’ poverty levels and track changes of their poverty levels over time.
PPI certification is recognized by industry bodies and investors alike, and will help Thaneakea Phum enhance their social performance transparency, improve relationships with external stakeholders, gain recognition within the microfinance industry, and may lead to receiving favorable terms from socially focused investors.
China
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 510
Skill: Translations
Date Completed: Multiple projects completed from 2010-2013
Over the past 25 years, poverty rates in China have fallen, but millions of Chinese still face persistent poverty. Through a unique collaboration signed on Sept. 15th 2010, in Shanghai between Grameen Foundation and the China Social Entrepreneurship Foundation (known as the YouChange Foundation), MFIs will now be able to expand their access to products and services that will increase their reach to even more of China's poorest people. YouChange PuRong, the social business born out of this partnership, has a goal to reach 10 million poor households in China with financial services. Two Bankers without Borders volunteers have jointly contributed more than 500 hours translating Grameen Foundation’s training materials and other documentation to from English to Chinese, greatly facilitating Grameen Foundation’s operations in China.
India
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 200
Skill: Finance
Date Completed: October 2012
A Bankers without Borders volunteer traveled to India to help Subhalaxmi Mahila Smabaya Ltd. (SMS), a local women’s cooperative, develop a comprehensive business plan to establish its own spice processing and packaging social enterprise. The new enterprise will generate both income for SMS and provide livelihood opportunities for its cooperative members.
Stories: India
In 2008, Basanti Kisan, a recently widowed mother of three, was living in abject poverty and barely getting by, making brooms to sell at the village market. When a local industrial plant took all the surrounding land in her village, she could not find enough raw materials to maintain her broom-making venture. Refusing to be discouraged, Basanti applied for a small loan from Subhalaxmi Mahila... Read More
Indonesia
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 803
Skill: Research and M&E
Date Completed: April 2010
A team of BwB volunteers helped develop tools, including a poverty data analysis framework, a redesigned website, and a management assessment, that enabled RUMA, a social business start-up, to better fulfill its mission to serve the poorest in underserved communities.
Stories: Indonesia
Grameen Foundation and Qualcomm, through it's Wireless ReachTM initiative, incubated RUMA to support the growing network of micro-entrepreneurs in Indonesia. RUMA provides a “business in a box” solution that enables the poor to sell prepaid mobile phone airtime in their communities. However, with only... Read More
Pakistan
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 150
Skill: Research and M&E
Date Completed: August 2012
A Bankers without Borders volunteer traveled to Pakistan to conduct an assessment to certify Asasah as an approved user of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI).
The Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI) is a simple and accurate tool that measures poverty levels of groups and individuals. Using the PPI, microfinance institutions can identify poverty levels of clients to better determine their needs, which programs are most effective in serving their needs, and how quickly clients leave poverty. Organizations around the world are using the PPI to measure their clients’ poverty levels and track changes of their poverty levels over time.
PPI certification is recognized by industry bodies and investors alike, and will help Asasah enhance their social performance transparency, improve relationships with external stakeholders, gain recognition within the microfinance industry, and may lead to receiving favorable terms from socially focused investors.
Philippines
Volunteer Hours Contributed: 90
Skill: Management
Date Completed: July 2012
A Bankers without Borders Volunteer trained Rangtay sa Pagrang-ay, Inc (RSPI) staff on how to use “process mapping,” a technique used to better understand what the inputs and outputs are of each process, who is responsible for completing each phase and how it is accomplished. Incorporating this method brought clarity to the business processes of RSPI relative to its lending operations for its different loan products and internal audit.
Stories: Philippines
As I sat sipping some lemongrass tea, one of the many gifts I brought back home with me from my trip to the Philippines, I reflected on the series of events that led me there, and what the experience meant to me.
On the plane, someone asked me, “What motivated you to go?” That was pretty easy to answer. I am a banker, and the vision of microfinance – a world without poverty – is... Read More
Thailand
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