Imagine if every time you went to cook a simple meal, the entire room filled with smoke, the pots went black with soot, and ash hung in the air for hours afterwards, making it difficult to breathe and aggravating your children’s asthma.   For Laxmi Gurung, this was her reality. Not only was it difficult to breathe while the stove was on, but it was also...

Good Return’s parent organisation World Education Australia works with YWCA New South Wales to deliver the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation’s global initiative: ConnectEd. The ConnectEd program provides education and digital skills training opportunities for children and youth in disadvantaged areas; with a focus on reaching young people who are at risk of disengaging,...

I recently spent a week in Cambodia with two colleagues conducting a review of our microfinance institution partner, TPC (Thaneakea Phum Campbodia).  The review was of TPC’s approach to meeting new standards of Client Protection Principles (CPP). CPP is the new ‘big thing’ in microfinance, and is being driven by the Smart Campaign.    Good...

In the world of international development, change tends to take time. Many individual microfinance borrowers have stories about how their lives have changed, but achieving tangible and visible changes in living standards in a community can be slow going, and microfinance is just one of many contributors to that process. Basic infrastructure (such as roads, water and...

In January of 2013, Good Return’s Financial Literacy Specialist joined forces with our Indonesia Program Coordinator to carry out an eight day train the trainer program at CUKK – our microfinance institution partner in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Trainees consisted of 16 CUKK staff members and 18 borrowers, all of whom were there not only to better understand...

Candy was the final woman I met with on my trip to the Philippines in January. Soft spoken with an ever-present and contagious smile, she is prominent in my memory for two reasons. The first: how she carefully wrote “plain housewife” as her occupation. The second: the joy and pride she felt from having a microfinance loan, because it meant that someone believed...

Good Return means business. Business opportunities for poor women in the Asia Pacific, that is. This March, help 300 women lift themselves, their family, and their community out of poverty. This International Women’s Day, Good Return is calling on Australians to help women in the developing world start their own businesses and help end poverty. Good Return has set...