Waste products of any kind are seen as a problem that needs to be solved. Good Return’s Sustainable Energy Program has a big emphasis on what happens after: after the useful life is over, after the battery runs out, after the family gets connected to electricity. Not so with biogas. Biogas is all about taking a waste product and turning it into something useful....

When you think about what you want in life… if you’re a mother, then one of the things that you want most is for your children to grow up to be good people — giving, kind, happy, independent, and to have choices in their life. One of the things that I try and focus on with my son is for him to learn that people don’t have to live in poverty. I...

I met Yosef and Juliana during my energy needs assessment with Good Return’s partner CUKK here in Indoneia. Members for 4 years, Yosef told me had a loan, for AUD$180 for 6 months to pay medical bills and his children’s education. But more than access to credit, Yosef and Juliana told me they joined CUKK because they wanted to be able to save money safely for the...

If you are a regular reader of Good Return’s blog, then you probably remember a few updates from Anthony, who is a volunteer here in our Sydney office but who went to Nepal in December 2011. He was our first Field Ambassador, and saw first-hand our work in Nepal. He met with more than twenty women who had received microfinance loans from Good Return and our...

I’m on my return flight from Nepal from what I feel was a very positive partnership review meeting with our microfinance partner in Nepal, Nirdhan Utthan Bank Ltd (NUBL). During my visit I spent time with their branch managers, who are responsible for implementing Good Return partnership activities, Nirdhan’s senior management team, and with our local office...

Like Mr Franciscus, Mr Yakobus is a founding member of the Jelayan Kaki Kuta branch of Keling Kumang, our partner in Indonsia. He has been a member for 10 years and was one of the first collectors or loan officers for Keling Kumang in the region. “When I started I walked 7-8 hours one way to the headquarters to deposit the money from our loans,” he told me....

This is my first visit to Laos and on my flight over (via Singapore) I fit in some quick background reading on the country. Most of the material focuses on Laos as one of the least developed and poorest Asian countries. I land in the capital, Vientiane, late in the evening. During my taxi ride from the airport to hotel I can’t help but thinking this city looks...