GLOBAL BRIGADES BLOG

ILLYA & INESSA LISUNUV A Rockstar Couple Joins the First Ever Microfinance Brigade… Submitted by Merrilee Chapin, 04/21/2010 An interview with a rockstar couple from UW who last minute joined the DePaul Microfinance Brigade to see firsthand how all the brigade programs fit together to change lives. Give us a quick bit about your background. [...]

Beyond the chance to develop the Microfinance Brigades (MFB) program amongst a fascinating group of MF professionals from 13 different countries; MFB also found the ideal MFB Brigade Coordinator out of a Grameen Bank intern at the time. Several months after this opportune meeting half-way around the world in Bangladesh, Global Microfinance Brigades welcomes Romain Testard to the Honduras team!

“He wants us to use what we learn in the classroom to reach out to the world around us. This project is revealing in that we aren’t just here to get credit for school. We are able to use our abilities in everyday life…” –Farewell High School student, Ivy Whitmore

Beyond Relief, Towards Sustainable Development Merrilee Chapin, 01/13/2010 Global Medical Brigades brings much needed relief to rural Honduran villages. But what happens when they see the same reoccurring illnesses time after time, year after year? Global Brigades students began Water Brigades and Public Health Brigades to provide preventative infrastructure and health education to these same [...]

Manuel (Mel) Zelaya is back, and with the tension of the exiled president’s return, an all-day curfew that most likely will be extended indefinitely is in place.

…12 members of the Pajarillos community, aged 20-60, with an average of only 3rd grade level of education, all eagerly aspiring to create their own community microfinance bank. Their own “caja rural” microfinance bank can give them the means to finance microenterprise endeavors and pull themselves out of poverty. I can’t describe the excited emotion filling that bus -both within the community members and myself.

If it weren’t for Dr. Muhammad Yunus and believe it or not John Stewart, I probably would not be where I am today: fulfilling my dreams, living and working to alleviate poverty in rural Honduras. The only way to even begin to describe the magnitude of this encounter for me today at the Grameen Bank HQ in Bangladesh, is with the story of how I came to be the Global Business Brigades Country Director in Honduras…

Though it may have taken a traumatic political event for CNN to take notice, deep-rooted and unconditional patriotism explicitly transcended Honduran culture long before last Sunday. …It was never uncommon to hear my Honduran friends whole-heartedly state, “I love Honduras,” in everyday conversation.