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Ouro Verde is part of the New Ventures initiative at the World Resources Institute

Brazilian entrepreneur Luis Laranja's company, Ouro Verde, is part of the New Ventures initiative at the World Resources Institute. New Ventures works with small and medium enterprises that have positive environmental impacts, and helps grow environmental entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

Marks & Spencer gives disadvantaged people an opportunity for employment training

Marks & Start is Marks & Spencer's work experience programme for those who are homeless, disabled, single parents and young unemployed.

Western Union partnered with Mercy Corps to increase financial literacy

Western Union, the leading money transfer service around the globe, entered into partnership with Mercy Corps in 2007 to increase financial literacy for families and individuals in some of the world's poorest countries. "Our World, Our Family" is the five-year, $50 million program that Western...

Deutsche Bank signed loan agreement with the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development in the Philippines

Deutsche Bank had signed a loan agreement with The Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD).

Women on the West Bank fight poverty with enterprise

A few short years after the war in Gaza, women in the West Bank are overcoming poverty by running their own co-operatives. With training, marketing assistance, and funding from several aid agencies, the women have been able to set up their own small businesses.

Using Microcredit Loans to Help to Lift the Poor Out of Poverty

Many institutions around the world are turning to microfinance both as a strategy to help lift the poor out of the poverty trap and to make a decent return on investment.

Meeting the demand of low-income women: Lifespring’s maternal care in India

LifeSpring Hospital in India is innovatively meeting the growing demand of low-income women who deserve affordable and dignified medical care. By focusing on a particular niche, maternal care, and different cost-saving strategies, this hospital provides maternal care at one-fifth of market...

LifeSpring Hospitals' low-cost and high-quality maternity services in India have captured 48% of the baby delivery market

LifeSpring Hospitals Pvt. Ltd tries to bridge the yawning gap between the substandard maternity services offered by underfunded public hospitals on the one hand and the expensive services available in private hospitals on the other.

Mirakle Couriers : A Courier Service Run by the Deaf in India

Mirakle Couriers is a courier delivery company with a difference. They employ underprivileged deaf people who have almost no other means to earn a livelihood. India has one of the highest deaf populations in the world. NGO’s and charities try to help individuals marginalized by society, but they...

Vaatsalya Hospitals: Affordable Healthcare in Proximity

Vaatsalya is a for-profit chain of hospitals and clinics which aims to provide quality healthcare to semi-urban and rural areas and was started by doctors-turned-entrepreneurs Ashwin Naik and Veerendra Hiremath in 2005.

Women artisans given business opportunities in Rwanda

Indego Africa is an NGO and a fair-trade online retailer. The organisation partners with small Rwandan "cooperatives", women artisan owned and operated producers of traditional baskets, bags, and other local products, and connects them to the growing global market for African inspired handicrafts,...

Taproot Foundation works with non-profit organisations

Taproot is a non-profit organisation that engages design, marketing, IT, strategic management, and human resources professionals in pro bono to build the infrastructure of other non-profit organisations.

Tengizchevroil identifies and facilitates loans at no interest to boost small business development in Kazakhstan

In the 20 years since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has experienced economic setbacks and increased poverty. One major hurdle to small business growth is lack of financing for loans. However, the Central Asian nation has attracted investors.

Rural communities in Serbia have IT services provided

Rural communities in Serbia are confronted with less infrastructure and opportunities, and hence higher levels of poverty. Access to IT facilities and computers/internet in particular remain a major challenge. This prevents people from accessing information such as job vacancies, buying machinery,...

Paper Recycling enterprise in Albania focuses on including smaller businesses and improving the environment

Edipack is a leading paper recycling and packaging material enterprise, located in one of the environmentally most hazardous places in Albania. With the aim of including poor and vulnerable people in its supply chain and generating income opportunities, Edipack cooperates with three NGOs, which...

A sucessful community/private/public partnership model for waste recycling in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the large proportion of urban population combined with limited waste collection systems poses serious social, environmental and health problems. A social enterprise called Waste Concern has found a way to transform solid waste into organic compost using a low cost, low-tech and...

Toyola Charcoal Stove: Improving the Environment and Health of the Poor in Ghana

Toyola Energy Limited is a company that operates in Ghana. It produces and distributes energy efficient charcoal stoves and solar lanterns for domestic users in the urban and rural parts of Ghana. Toyola entrepreneurs Suraj Wahab and Ernest Kyei – two artisans - have implemented an innovative...

Tedcor model helps out small businesses with refuse removal in South Africa

Tedcor started its community-based refuse removal system in 1992. Today, using Tedcor's model, over 80 trained entrepreneurs operate their own small businesses in 16 local authorities. They provide employment to more than 1,000 historically disadvantaged people and supply waste removal services to...

SELCO partners with India's state banks to bring sunlight to rural India

SELCO India is a Bangalore‐based social enterprise that makes solar lighting technology accessible to the economically impoverished people in India. SELCO’s mission is based on a simple but powerful idea that the economic conditions of the impoverished can be improved substantially if they are made...

PROMASOL partners to provide green energy and create jobs in Morocco

For a country like Morocco with 3,000 hours of sun per year, totally depending on imports for its energy needs seems like a paradox. Being aware of such a situation, Moroccan authorities aimed to benefit from renewable sources of energy to produce at least 10% of the country’s energy needs by 2010....