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In Myanmar's slums, women pool savings to get relief from crushing loans

Connor MacDonald

March 30, 2017 |

Citiscope |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Myanmar, Yangon, Yangon Region

Years of misrule and a subsequent dearth of hard currency, along with crippling bank-fostered debt cycles and exorbitant home mortgage interest rates, have created immense suffering for Myanmar's poor. But with the guidance of a local NGO, Women for the World, a pilot project helped women in some of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods capitalize on their cultural "head-of-household" status. It helped them form and manage community savings cooperatives, secure land, build homes, buy food, and even generate profit through loans to families' business enterprises.

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How to Keep Businesses (and Small Towns) Alive When Owners Retire

Kaela Bamberger

March 29, 2017 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Concordia, Kansas

RedTire, short for Redefine Your Retirement, is helping small businesses stay afloat by facilitating transitions in business ownership and acting as a non-profit business broker. The service helps rural communities thrive since small businesses are essential to the vitality of small towns. In its five year history, RedTire has brokered sales that collectively total over $22 million.

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A Surprising Path Out of Domestic Abuse: Entrepreneurship

Riva Richmond

March 28, 2017 |

The Story Exchange |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Women are often stuck in an abusive relationship due to poor financial situations. Programs are beginning to help abused women by giving them support and helping them become entrepreneurs in order to become financially independent.

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Northern Lights: Large-Scale Solar Power Is Spreading Across the U.S.

Cheryl Katz

March 23, 2017 |

Yale Environment 360 |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Once largely confined to the desert Southwest, solar power is making its way across the United States. Due to decreasing prices in installations, coupled with government incentives and increasing knowledge of energy harvesting capabilities, solar has recently found its way into places such as Idaho, Maine, Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, and Nebraska - with places like Georgia and Florida are looking to expand. Despite the pushback from the newest presidential administration, even cynics of the solar power movement are declaring it the most viable option.

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Small Town, Big Success With Reentry Program

Johnny Magdaleno

March 06, 2017 |

Next City |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, New Castle, Pennsylvania

Jail-to-Jobs, a program with one employee, has helped more than 260 formerly incarcerated people find full-time jobs. Created by a district attorney who saw former felons struggling to be considered for openings, the program links local companies with insurance and support in order to promote hiring.

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Help Is on the Way for Low-Income Co-op Buildings in NYC

Oscar Perry Abello

March 01, 2017 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Habitat for Humanity, best known for its work building houses, is now working to become a Community Development Financial Institution in New York. The city has a history of buildings owned as cooperatives. However, a specific type of municipal debt negatively impacts many of these buildings. Habitat for Humanity’s New York chapter is working to provide loans to help cooperative owners pay off this debt. It will help individuals, while also marking a turning point in what the large nonprofit provides as a service.

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M-Pesa: Kenya's mobile money success story turns 10

Kieron Monks

February 24, 2017 |

CNN |

Multi-Media |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi, Nairobi Area

Ten years ago, Vodafone's Safaricom launched "M-Pesa" a mobile-phone based payment system designed to ease transfer of money in Kenya among individuals and small businesses. With a maximum transaction of 70,000 Kenyan shillings ($675 USD), M-Pesa markets "to the base of the pyramid:" not only has M-Pesa taken root in more than ten other countries, but it counts 18 million active users in Kenya and, through access to a mobile monetary payment system, has lifted 2% of Kenyan households out of extreme poverty.

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The future will be battery-powered

Amelia Urry

February 21, 2017 |

Grist |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

There is an ongoing competition to improve batteries as a method of energy storage that is environmentally conscious. Intense research on batteries is ongoing, including the development of the "saltwater battery', in order to improve their reliability, storage abilities and safety.

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Can the Graduation Approach Help to End Extreme Poverty?

Tony Sheldon

February 07, 2017 |

Yale Insights |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Bangladesh, Dhaka

BRAC, the largest NGO in the world and one of the leaders in microfinance as an approach to combating poverty, discovered that despite its successes, microcredit did not always reach what are called the Ultra-Poor in effective, sustainable ways. So they formed partnerships and launched a new, comprehensive initiative that involves consumption support, technical and financial literacy training, and asset management to create a pathway to prosperity called the "graduation approach."

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In Kansas City, a lesson in transforming closed schools

Kalyn Belsha

January 24, 2017 |

Chicago Reporter |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

When public schools close, what can communities do with the buildings? Kansas City hired an urban planner to help repurpose school buildings to better engage the community and enabled non-profits a chance to purchase the old properties. This school reuse excelled from increasing the transparency of the decision-making process and “creative financing.”

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