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In Pakistan, Savings Circles Beat Banks
Ali has been selling wall clocks and wristwatches in a crowded Karachi market for 15 years. He’s been participating in savings circles with fellow shopkeepers for just as long, and has used the proceeds to buy a car and acquire a new store.Now he’s a few months away from getting 400,000 rupees ($4,100) from a savings group of 16 shopkeepers into which he’s been paying 1,000 rupees a day for almost a year. He plans to put a down payment on an apartment. “This system is flawless,” says Ali, 35, who goes by one name. “You can never save this way without this binding commitment of making payments every day or every month. At banks there are hassles and procedures that waste time. This is simple. The organizer comes to collect the money himself, and because of the trust element, it’s a given that we’ll get the money.”
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Rebecca van Bergen Gives Wings to Struggling Artisans
The talents of countless small-scale craftspeople around the world are abundant, but many have trouble growing their businesses because they lack resources and connections to large-scale, and perhaps more importantly, consistent buyers in higher-income countries. But what if those connections could be made, with some financial resources and business consulting made available? Enter Rebecca van Bergen, part social entrepreneur, part fashionista. Van Bergen is founder and executive director of Nest, a nonprofit dedicated to helping artisans in developing countries grow their businesses.
- Categories
- Education
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FAO warns of bird flu and other viral global health threats
The world is at risk of major animal disease outbreaks like that seen in the 2006 avian influenza outbreaks unless surveillance and control of these diseases are enhanced, warns the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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A novel pathway for a mucosal TB vaccine
A new pathway for improving vaccines against tuberculosis has been discovered by microbiologists at the University at Buffalo in collaboration with researchers at other universities, according to a paper in the journal Mucosal Immunology, published by the Nature group.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- public health, research
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Univ. of Utah gets $13 mln for impact investing center
University of Utah's school ofbusiness has received $13 million from technology entrepreneur James Lee Sorenson to establish a center to advance investment to organizations that demonstrate a benefit to society, the university announced on Tuesday. The new James Lee Sorenson Center for Global Impact Investing will focus on the very early stages of investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention of generating measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- impact investing
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Micro-Needles Could Allow Painless DNA Vaccines
Patches covered in microscopic needles could tattoo vaccines into the skin to boost a patient’s defense against disease, researchers say.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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Glaxo Starts India Venture to Develop Emerging Market Vaccines
GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) agreed to form a joint venture in India to produce a six-in-one vaccine that will immunize children in developing countries against infectious diseases including polio.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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The relevance of Gandhi in the capitalism debate
"The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed," Mahatma Gandhi said in what is now one of his best-known quotes. Its ubiquity is for good reason. Our 'must-have, must-buy' economy is eating into the planet's resources like never before, something Gandhi foresaw three-quarters of a century ago. He also warned of the dangers of other countries taking to western industrialism.
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