Here’s a great video by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon about women entrepreneurs and their stories from around the world:

CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) is an independent policy and research center dedicated to advancing financial access for the world’s poor. Their “Microfinance Now” series features interviews with leading figures in the world of microfinance.  Here is a recap of their last 5 episodes:

Samit Ghosh
In this interview Samit Ghosh, CEO and Founder of Ujjivan, a microfinance institution based in Bangalore working with the urban poor, talks about the microcredit crisis in Andhra Pradesh, and how other institutions continue to work in India. Ghosh discusses the role for microfinance given the impact of inflation on the poor in India. Ghosh founded Ujjivan when he retired from banking in 2005, and here he makes the case for MFIs to understand the importance of their connections to the community…

Shodh Yatra: an Indian microfinance journey
Shodh Yatra: an Indian microfinance journey This film follows Vijay Mahajan on the final days of his journey through India exploring the lives and livelihoods of the poor. Vijay, who is the current Chair of CGAP’s Executive Committee and Chairman of BASIX, a microfinance and livelihoods business headquartered in Hyderabad, has been on the front lines of the battle in Andhra Pradesh. His journey by foot, public transport, and by car took him across five thousand kilometers of India to meet and …

Sub-K: seeking the next breakthrough in financia…
In this short video Vijay Mahajan, Chair of Basix, welcomes a new customer to Sub-K, Basix’ new agent banking service in Panchlingala, a small village on the outskirts of Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. The customer has brought two forms of photo ID with him to open the account, and he speaks his voice password into the agent’s mobile phone in Kannada, one of five languages in which the service works. It is “truly a high-tech solution,” says Mahajan, brought to outlets like this small store where p…

Microfinance Now: Tilman Ehrbeck
Interview with Tilman Ehrbeck, CEO of CGAP

Richard Rosenberg on over-indebtedness
CGAP senior advisor Richard Rosenberg talks about what he considers to be the biggest challenge facing the microfinance industry today: defining and “getting a handle” on the levels of over-indebtedness experienced by poor people around the world.

Here’s an interview with Casey Wilson, the Co-Founder of Wokai.org in China:

Rarely do I hear much about Microcredit in Iran, so I thought this was a neat youtube video from some people in the Bardsir and Kerman provinces in Iran who got some loans from Relief International:

Relief International’s Rural Women’s Microcredit Program in the Bardsir and Kerman provinces facilitates women’s empowerment and financial independence by providing-small scale loans. Through this holistic program, some 300 women have been able to purchase livestock, set up grocery stores and make and market traditional handicraft, providing them with steady income to support their families.

Lumana (I volunteered with them for a month in Ghana last year) just got their first television appearance — they were featured on KCTS 9 Connects on Friday. You can view the segment here.

Congrats to Cole, Samantha, and the entire Lumana team!

I came across a an article in OptimistWorld that talked about OneSeed Expeditions, a social startup that uses travel to fund women entrepreneurs in the developing world.  I was instantly a huge fan of the new startup, so I thought I would write something up about it:

What is OneSeed?
OneSeed Expeditions was founded in 2010 by Chris Baker, Bishnu Thapa, and Tek Bahadur Dong after more than three years of planning and preparation. Conceived as a social enterprise with a sustainable revenue stream, OneSeed Expeditions grew directly out of the research and work experience of its founders. OneSeed’s founders bring a unique mix of mountain guiding, ethnographic fieldwork, and non-profit skills to the start-up team. We try to keep it pretty simple:  you take an amazing trip; a local entrepreneur launches or expands their small business. We aim to change the way that travel impacts local communities.  We’ve all seen the negative side of tourism, but what happens when you take the power of travel and harness it to fund creative entrepreneurs?  Answering that question is what OneSeed is all about.

OneSeed Expeditions | Exploring the world. Investing in People. from OneSeed Expeditions on Vimeo.

To get more information about what OneSeed does and who they are, visit their website  or read their blog

Here’s an interesting video from Real Clear World with Susan Davis, the President and CEO of BRAC, in which she explains how microfinance grew out of “a movement for social justice and women’s empowerment and equality” into a “tool for income generation and productive loans.”

Tilman Ehrbeck, the CEO of CGAP, discusses the role of public money in the microfinance sector:

Last week, Vittana along with it’s lenders funded it’s 1,000th student through microfinance loans! Additionally, they are launching their campaign “What does education mean to you?” which recently aired on Hulu. If you haven’t yet seen the PSA, here it is for you:

What Does Education Mean to You? from Vittana on Vimeo.

Trickle Up is an organization that empowers people living on less than $1.25 a day to take the first steps out of poverty, providing them with resources to build microenterprises for a better quality of life.  In partnership with local agencies, Trickle Up provides business training seed capital grants to launch or expand a microenterprise and savings support to build assets throughout Asia, Africa and Central America.

“Yesterday, Trickle Up launched it’s Mother’s Day Seed A Dream Campaign.  The campaign gives people a way to help a mother in a developing country lift herself from extreme poverty and at the same time honor the mothers in their lives this Mother’s Day.  Trickle Up is partnering with journalist Campbell Brown on the campaign to draw attention to the plight of poor mothers and the extent and severity of extreme poverty worldwide.

Through the campaign, donors can make gifts to Trickle Up in honor of the mothers in their lives that will in turn help a poor mother launch or expand a small business. Mothers who are honored through a donation will receive a Mother’s Day card that explains the impact of the gift, and donors of more than $100 can choose to receive a limited edition, Trickle Up necklace while supplies last. Trickle Up friends will match the donation dollar for dollar to increase the reach and impact of the contributions.” Read More

To learn more, watch the video from Campbell Brown: