Off the Grid in Guatemala: Visiting the Amazing Tikal National Park

bteutsch@greenmicrofinance.org — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Over the winter break, my family traveled to Guatemala, a lush, beautiful country, recovering from a 35-year civil war which of course hampered its development. Guatemala's biggest sources of dollars are remittances from Guatemalan emigres (20,000 of whom have recently been deported from the US back to Guatemala, thank you President Bush) and tourism.

Mindful of what I've learned about the lack of energy infrastructure in the developing world, and the impacts of energy poverty, I [...]

The Lumina Project Reports on LED's in Kenya

bteutsch@greenmicrofinance.org — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Evan Mills heads up The Lumina Project, studying the relative quality and cost of third world lighting options. The goal, of course, is to find the most energy-efficient bulbs for the lowest price and spread them across the planet. Here is a letter from Evan in today's inbox. His work does not presume one source of financing over another, just investigating general practicality and affordability.

Keep up the great work, Dr. Mills!

Our First Delaware Valley Event!

bteutsch@greenmicrofinance.org — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Saturday, Nov 15, 2008

Join us for our first local event

Harnessing Clean Energy to
Microfinance: Waste is Wealth!

Meet the GMf Team and our guest
D Vidya Sagar,
Director of SKg Sangha India

7:30-9:00 PM
St Peters Episcopal Church
Parish Hall
121 Church Street
Phoenixville, PA

Download Invi [...]

Hats Off to our Own Kathleen Robbins!

bteutsch@greenmicrofinance.org — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

GreenMicrofinance's Clean Technology expert, Kathleen Robbins, is known to many of you from her GMf blog posts about her work with jatropha in Haiti, as well as her reports from Bali, Vietnam and other locations her important work takes her. Her passion has not gone unnoticed! She is one of the recipient's of ConcernUSA's Brigid Award, which she will re [...]

Haiti - A Country in Crisis!

krobbins@greenmicrofinance.org — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Fonkoze is Haiti's largest microfinance with over 50,000 borrowers, of which over 20,000 have lost most, if not all of their worldly assets due to four recent storms that have racked Haiti. People were already reeling from the huge increases in food and fuel prices and these storms destroyed major sectors of their economic and food security. test

In the Artibonite Valley, which used to be Haiti's rice bowl, 75% of the crop was destroyed and across the island banana tree, lai [...]

Micro-Loans, Macro-Impact!

krobbins@greenmicrofinance.org — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Micro-Loans, Macro-Impact! A conference hosted at the University of Illinois on 4 October by the National Organization for Business and Engineering (NOBE) and Entreprenuers without Borders, provided an opportunity for students to learn about microfinance and how in practical terms, it is impacting people in developing countries around the world.

We discussed Haiti and their 200 year descent from the wealthiest country in the French Empire to the the poorest in the wes [...]

Grocking the Carbon Market 101

bteutsch@greenmicrofinance.org — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Last week, while world markets were tanking, I was attending a fascinating program, the GreenPowerConference on Carbon Markets. For my work here at GreenMicrofinance I wanted to better understand this emerging scene - each microclient who obtains a loan to [...]

Manifesto on Equitable Energy Distribution

bteutsch@greenmicrofinance.org — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Photo by Pamoj - women extracting jatropha oil

For those who live in the industrialized world, our experience of a non-electrified existence is very limited. For many of us, the normalcy of turning on light switches and plugging in appliances to do [...]

An Introduction to Hanoi - Breaking the Cycle

krobbins@greenmicrofinance.org — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

As the Japan Airlines 767 descended through the clouds to the runway in Hanoi, I remembered other days and other times. A not so long ago time when the US and Vietnam were at war. But instead of devastation, we pulled up to a modern terminal and 20 minutes later I found myself on a smooth, modern highway riding into a well light city. Asian Pacific Regional Microcredit Summit / Bank Indonesia Annual International Seminar: Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change

The Microcredit Summit ended late on Wednesday evening and the Macroeconmic Seminar began on Thursday evening and of course, it was being held in the hotel next door. Suddenly I found myself transported from a land microcredit and NGOs to one of bankers, academics and economists. Talk about a &lsquo [...]

Summit Reflections: Transparency

dan@lundmark.com — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

This past week at the summit a major topic was interest rate transparency, as some MFIs have come under fire for charging relatively high rates and allowing "mission drift" to move them to a priority of high profits instead of the original mission of poverty alleviation. Long time microfinance insider Chuck Waterfield has taken the initiative to address these concerns, launching MicroFinance Transparency.

Monkeying Around in Bali

krobbins@greenmicrofinance.org — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

On Tuesday night I thought I was back in the cellular industry with the start-up of the Qualcomm Indonesian village phone program, Uber ESIA. They had a big launch party complete with dancers and music, and free flowing food and drinks. Professor Yunis was the featured speaker but of course, the real treat was the conversations with people like the movie producer from New York that is working on a film about Grameen. Gayle Ferrario has produced two films about Grameen and [...]

My Chat with Ingrid Munro

eisrael@greenmicrofinance.org — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Over the past days we have been video-taping various folks here at the conference. I had the privilege to meet and chat with Ingrid Munro founder of JamiiBoro in Kenya, a member organization that works with and uplifts street beggars.

The story of those who have been supported by JamiiBoro is an inspiration – whether through microfinance program or through her housing program and Levuka, a program for a [...]

Panel: Microfinance, Their Clients, and Clean Energy

eisrael@greenmicrofinance.org — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Today was a breakthrough! Since 2002, GreenMicrofinance has been participating and leading panels on microfinance and the environment at various Microcredit Summit gatherings- Bangladesh 2004; Chile 2005, Halifax 2006, and today in Bali.

During today's session on Microfinance, Their Clients, and Clean Energy: Making a Positive Impact on the Environment there was a definite shift in interest and ‘energy' around the topic. THE LIGHTS ARE ON!

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