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SELCO: A Business, Ongoing Case Study in Solar-Powered Social Impact
SELCO, a social enterprise traditionally focused on providing solar energy to the rural underserved, has launched a new urban model in India that has helped electrify a set of slum-dwelling households in Bangalore. The early success has been less about the feat of solar power in slums, and more about creating a ripple effect for social impact.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment
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Housing Series: Sustainable Communities Generating Sustainable Habitats
We began Echale a Tu Casa over 25 years ago as a nonprofit to help low-income Mexican families improve home safety, health and hygiene conditions. Realizing that philanthropy would not permit us to have much of an impact on these living conditions, we created a social enterprise built on an integrated system of savings, credit and subsidies.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, WASH
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How to Reach Out to Rural India? Practitioners and Academics In Dialogue
There is no shortage of ideas, and some would even say no shortage of products, that would help the rural poor to improve their social and economic situation. But distribution remains a key challenge. At the oikos swiss Practitioner Day 2011, young scholars, local experts and practitioners from several companies discussed how to tackle the issue.
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- Agriculture, Technology
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Milaap Providing Vocational Training to Rural Students Via Microlending
It’s estimated that about 423 million of India’s working-age population will be unemployed or unable to participate in the job market by 2030. Milaap, a microlender and microfranchising hub, has partnered with with GRAVITY to enable anyone to lend money to help students get vocational training through Milaap’s online platform.
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- Education
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Making Education Relevant Where You Least Expect It
I recently visited a school in Maharashtra with rural education social enterprise Lend-A-Hand India. The principal says the Introduction to Basic Technology program implemented there has yielded phenomenal results: "When we find these kids, they don’t even have clothes on their back. Now, they are thinking about starting their own businesses."
- Categories
- Education
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Updated: The Ugly Truth About Famines
The drought, which spurred the UN to declare a famine for the first time since 1984, has affected the entire Horn of Africa, including much of Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. And yet the only areas where the UN has officially declared a "famine" are two pockets of southern Somalia controlled by the al-Shabab militia.
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- Education, Health Care
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Guest Post: Why My Classroom is a Startup
I have always dreamt of starting my own chain of low cost affordable schools.That dream motivated me to join the Teach For India Fellowship. My small classroom was without the basic necessities. So my 27 students and I are learning the basics of sustainable business. For me, the students are not only the product, but also the customer.
- Categories
- Education
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Helping Rural Farmers Avoid Financial ’Shocks,’ Build Profits
In many developing countries, the everyday well-being of the poor is profoundly tied to ups and downs of the harvest. In rural Ghana, where Yale University Economist Chris Udry runs his CFSP research project, this is especially true. Udry explains how his research might help rural farmers in developing countries manage the everyday risks they face.
- Categories
- Agriculture