News & Articles

Archive of Microcredit News Links:

Reprinted from The News International

Reprinted from Spero News

Reprinted from The Ticker

Reprinted from World Bank

Reprinted from the Poverty News Blog

India bishops say microcredit may save dying farmers. (Read more)

Reprinted from MicroCapital

The Canadian International Development Agency, allocates USD 16 mm to the Microfinance Investment Support Facility (MISF) in Afghanistan. (Read more)  

IDB's Report Concludes that Microfinance Outreach has Increased in Latin America and the Caribbean, but still has a long road ahead. (Read more)

Reprinted from Monsters and Critics

Micro-credit hasn't picked up in India: Yunus (INTERVIEW)

Reprinted from the Hindustan Times

Make Micro-finance part of Mainstream Banking

Nobel Peace laureate and micro-finance pioneer Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday advised India to pass legislation that would make micro-finance part of the “mainstream” banking system. (Read more)

Reprinted from The Center for Global Development

Evaluating the Impact of Microfinance

In December, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded received the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering contributions to the development of microfinance. . .(Read more)

Reprinted from The New Yorker

Millions for Millions

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner and some high-tech entrepreneurs are competing to provide credit to the world’s poor. (Read more)

Reprinted from Business Report

New type of capitalism can help eradicate poverty

Capitalism centres on the free market. It is claimed that the more free the market, the better is the result of capitalism in solving the questions of what, how and for whom. It is also claimed that the individual search for personal gains brings a collective optimal result. I am in favour of strengthening the freedom of the market. At the same time, I am very unhappy about the conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. (Read more)

Reprinted from Microcredit Summit

From Microfinance to Macro Change:

Integrating Health Education and Microfinance to Empower Women and Reduce Poverty (Read more)

Reprinted from United Nations Capital Development Fund

Perspectives from the field

By all measures, David Park was a success. A Harvard graduate with a great job as an investment banker in San Francisco, he nevertheless felt he wanted something more out of his life and his job. He remembered reading about microcredit in a development economics course he took in college. The idea intrigued him and he started doing research on the internet. Eventually, he left his investment banking job and, through a lot of hard work, became the Director of Microfinance Institutional Development at World Relief, a Christian relief and development organization. (Read more)

Reprinted from the New York Times

Microloan Pioneer and His Bank Win Nobel Peace Prize

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- The simple yet revolutionary idea of loaning tiny sums to poor people looking to escape poverty by starting businesses won Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. . . (Read More)

Reprinted from the Microenterprise Americas

Microcredit
At the Click of a Mouse
Special Section: Access to Markets

César Hugo, a 58-year-old Ecuadorian ironsmith, earns his living along with his four children fabricating doors, windows and iron bars. His business is in demand in the poor neighborhoods of Guayaquil, where robberies are common and iron bars serve as protection against break-ins. But Hugo’s business cannot grow or flourish due to a lack of capital. Yet he has not sought a local loan to solve his problem: his hope is the internet. Hugo is counting on connecting to enough individuals who will each lend him at least us$25 so he can get the us$500 needed to invest in making a showroom to be able to present his products to potential clients. . .(Read More)

Reprinted from the Washington Square Magazine

Ending Poverty, One Loan at a Time

by Mansi Bhatia Summer 2006

ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS could get you a pair of concert tickets, dinner in a fancy restaurant, a dress from Macy’s, or, perhaps, 1,000 minutes of talk time on your cell phone. The same hundred dollars could lift a Mayan woman and her family out of poverty. . . (Read More)

Reprinted from The Daily Californian

A Helping Hand for the Developing World

by Ellen Dobie
Tuesday, September 5, 2006

I believe I quote Bob Dylan correctly when I repeat, "We live in a political world, where love don't have any place." While Dylan has and will always be the quiet poet of my soul, this past summer I sought to prove him wrong. . .(Read More)

Reprinted from Marketwire

NamasteDirect Offers First-Ever Free Trial to Provide Online Microcredit Experience to "Entry Level" Philanthropists

Sponsorship by Cyberspace Microcredit Innovation Fund Will Fully Fund 100+ Group of Women in Central America

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- June 20, 2006 -- NamasteDirect, the leading online microcredit organization dedicated to providing loan capital to women in rural Central America, announced a first-of-its-kind free trial membership that allows individuals to become members of a donor group without cost. For a limited time, individuals can become participating funders of the Señoras Del Toliman 100+ Group in Guatemala and experience a personal, high-engagement means of alleviating poverty in developing countries by providing microcredit to female entrepreneurs. . . (Read more)

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
Join us at Social Edge for the online world premiere of Breaking the Cycle of Poverty, a 20-minute fund-raising film produced by Cynthia Harris for the Namaste Direct Foundation.

The film is an excellent example of the effective use of video by a non-profit organization. This small budget movie shows how a social entrepreneur is changing the lives of hundreds of poor women in Guatemala by turning them into entrepreneurs. . .(Read More)