Honey Care Africa: Powering Smallholder Honey Production in East Africa
More than seventy-five percent of Kenya’s population lives in rural areas, where many families rely on smallholder farming for both food and income. Honey Care Africa is a social enterprise working throughout East Africa to help smallholder households increase their incomes through commercial honey production. Working with both traditional beekeepers and smallholder farmers, Honey Care […]
Vera Awarded First Annual Social Impact Award at Harvard Social Enterprise Conference 2014
Vera was honored to receive the first annual Social Impact Award at the 15th Harvard Social Enterprise Conference this weekend, March 29-30, 2014. The award, presented by keynote speaker and Echoing Green President Cheryl Dorsey, highlights individuals and organizations who have especially strong track records of providing innovative and impactful change in the social enterprise […]
Milaap: Connecting India’s Working Poor to Capital
Despite India’s rapidly growing economy, characterized by burgeoning middle and upper classes, widespread poverty remains endemic across the country, and especially so in rural areas. Of the country’s 269.3 million people categorized as poor, nearly 216.5 million live in rural areas, often with limited access to vital resources, ranging from education and running water to […]
Vera’s Fellowship Program: Reflections on Technology, Social Impact, and Personal Growth
With applications open for the 2014-2015 Vera Fellowship program, we sat down with Jill Shah, a current Fellow in Vera’s Mumbai office, to provide potential applicants with insight into her Fellowship experience. Born in Mumbai and raised in northern New Jersey, Jill attended Northwestern University, where she discovered her deep passion for global health and […]
SHOFCO: Managing Community Development Programs in the Slums of Nairobi
Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, is home to an estimated 1 million people. Here, access to even the most basic necessities, like electricity and potable water, is a challenge. Services that so many of us take for granted such as trash collection, medical care, education, or even public spaces are almost completely unavailable to most of […]
Sanergy and Captricity: Appropriate Technology for Challenging Environments
About 2.3 million people, or 60 percent of Nairobi’s population, live in slums, and most have little to no access to formal sanitation services. Stagnant rivulets of human waste that trickle past homes and alongside narrow dirt roads in the tightly packed neighborhoods are as common as the diarrheal diseases they carry with them. Sanergy, […]
myAgro: Helping Smallholder Farmers in Mali Save via SMS
myAgro is a social enterprise helping smallholder farmers in rural Mali break the cycle of poverty by aiding them to plan, save for, and purchase inputs to make their farms more profitable. myAgro staff work with farmers to set a goal for the upcoming season, offer them tools to encourage incremental savings, and deliver products, […]
U.S. Soccer Foundation: Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in Underserved Communities
The U.S. Soccer Foundation is using soccer to combat childhood obesity and promote healthy lifestyles for children in under-served urban communities through a free after-school fitness program called Soccer for Success. The U.S. Soccer Foundation partners with community organizations throughout the U.S. to run it’s program, focusing on the core components of physical activity, nutrition, […]