All Blog Posts (314)

As part of the new intercultural team of MAPLE Microdevelopment in South America, Alison Guzman, my partner, and I, are soon to begin a journey of six months as civil society ambassadors to Mapuche ancestral lands in Chile. We are honored by the invitation by the Llaguepulli Mapuche Community, to join in their efforts for autonomy, empowerment and self-sufficiency in their indigenous ancestral territory of Lake Budi or ayllarewe Budi…

Making Cents International invites you to share your experience and expertise by submitting a proposal to lead a workshop-style technical session at the 2013 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference. The conference will take place September 10-12, 2013 at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Conference Center in Washington, DC. Share your lessons learned, promising practices, and innovative ideas in one or more of the following learning tracks: workforce development; gender;…

The housing industry is under control due to the QE3 bond-buying program of the Federal Reserve. Mortgage rates are also going very low. This is quite encouraging for the people who want to buy a new home or refinance their mortgages. As per the mortgage advice of the real estate experts, it is a good time to take out such loans, even if one is not intending to use it for real estate…

Volunteer Opportunity: September 11-13, 2012

Making Cents International welcomes young professionals and graduate students to volunteer at this year’s Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference, which will take place at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Conference Center in Washington, DC September 11-13, 2012.

Volunteer Obligation and Opportunity

Volunteers are asked to assist with logistics for 1.5 days of the conference in exchange for…

The 2012 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference program is now available for you to review.  This year’s conference showcases 60 sessions and 120 world-class speakers from 25 countries with a special cross-cutting spotlight on technology. The conference will take place September 11-13, 2012 at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Conference Center in Washington, DC. Attend the conference to share your…

Making Cents International invites you to submit a proposal to lead a workshop-style technical session at the 2012 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference. The conference will take place September 11-13, 2012 at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Conference Center in Washington, DC. Submit a proposal to share your lessons learned, promising practices, and innovative ideas in one or more of the following learning tracks: workforce development; adolescent girls & young…

            My experience at the Global Microcredit Summit in Spain, as it was in Kenya at last year’s regional summit, was fantastic.  I am consistently impressed by the small community of microfinance enthusiasts who always manage to make these types of events interesting and engaging, yet fun and personable.

            I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to come to Valladolid through the generosity of Dr. Steven Funk and…

http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.9.55795/

A consumer counseling center offers debt mediation and financial education

Maja (not her real name), a divorced mother of one child, had been running a small retail clothing business in the Bosnian city of Tuzla and was managing to make ends meet. But the recession gradually took its toll, and by March 2010, Maja was forced to shut her business down. Her income dropped to zero -- but she still had three outstanding loans with combined monthly payments of 350…

Microlending Film Project is a global documentary about microfinance to women, and has filmed in Paraguay, India, Kenya, and the US. We've documented thought-leaders including Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, Vijay Mahajan (India's "father of microfinance"), Ela Bhatt (member of Nelson Mandela's board "The Elders"), Jennifer Riria (first women board member of Nairobi's Stock Exchange), Anuja Jaitly (a young Michigander who…

And here it was.  At times I had counted the days left.  Even calculated percentages.  EVEN cried to my parents that I wanted to come home.  And now, it seems like none of that had happened.  It seems like my time in Dar was far, far too short.

I needed a way to thank the staff for everything that they had done for me.  So naturally, I turned to food.  Because Shoprite had been closed by the time that I arrived home, I stopped off early in the morning at Fairy Delights in Shopper’s…