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...

Hello! I’m Joni, the Digital Marketing Coordinator here at Good Return. Usually, I get to edit photos and tell stories that are passed on to me from our program team – the hard-working and talented folks who travel to our partner countries to help in the coordination of Good Return’s programs (microfinance, education, sustainable energy, and our newest program,...

The first exchange visit between two Good Return partners happened in the Philippines from 2 December until 4 December 2012. TPC’s (our microfinance institution partner in Cambodia) Chief Operations Officer Mr. Sok Voeurn accompanied me on a visit to SECDEP (our partner in the Philippines) to observe the client training in the field to gain some insights for the...

Mary Grace Legada is a 32 year old mother of three kids. A year ago she ran a vegetable stall in her local market, and now operates her own mini-convenience (‘sari sari’) store. To date she has had three loans funded by Good Return, and has repaid two of them on time. Her most recent loan was just funded on February 1, 2012. Her story highlights the...

I can’t believe how fast time is flying… We have implemented the Sustainable Energy project in the Philippines more than a year ago. And now, it is time for us to consider everything that has happened during that period… A return back in time with an after-taste of rollercoaster! Before we actually started the project, we discussed it for months with SECDEP,...

This year is the UN’s International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. The focus is on providing energy access to the 2.7 billion people worldwide who still rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating, and the 1.4 billion who have no access to electricity. Every week I hear of yet another low-cost, small-scale renewable energy product, which has come to...