Working at Esperanza as a financial analyst has been an incredible experience with a lot of engaging and fun opportunities. My main responsibility is to do end of the month reports for the organization. These reports are then used to make decisions on the organization’s performance and methods, and they help us to recognize which branches of the organization are under/over performing.
The past two months have flown by here. I originally planned to come here to independently research Kenya’s microfinance landscape—seeking to understand how Kenyans, both in rural areas and in the slums of Nairobi, use rotating savings and credits associations (ROSCAs) and accumulating savings and credit associations (ASCAs) to manage their finances— rather than the MFIs in the country. But then while co-oping in China and thinking about my experiences at Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, I decided I wanted to learn more about approaches to income development beyond increasing access to financial resources.
As the impact of social enterprise grows around the world, we in turn are growing our capacity to meet the market need for a new generation of highly motivated and well trained social entrepreneurs.
Consistent with the unique mission and approach of Northeastern, our social enterprise curriculum is student-centered, practice oriented, and global. Our focus is on design, development and finance for enterprises working in poverty reduction and economic development in low income countries and communities. We teach students how business and business principles can be a force for global good, especially when inspired and informed young people lead the way toward positive change, meaningful impact and broadly shared value.
This spring, Net Impact is challenging its members to simulate the experience of a Grameen Bank borrower. The inspiration for this project is derived from the first micro-loan Muhammad Yunus issued in 1976 to a group of poor women in Jobra, Bangladesh. The small loan of just $27 ended the Read more…
Last fall, fifteen volunteers from the Social Enterprise Institute participated in a social entrepreneurship program in partnership with Citizen Schools program. Citizen Schools is an organization that partners with middle schools across the country to offer extended day programs to students in low performing schools. The Citizen Schools model brings Read more…
Tim Spittle’s journey in social entrepreneurship and global health advocacy took him from biking across the US for FACE AIDS, to working for Esperanza in the Dominican Republic, culminating in a student leadership trip to Rwanda.