Domestic Poverty: what’s going on?

photo courtesy of The Inquisitr

One question we get asked frequently at PovertyCure is, "What are you doing to address poverty here in the US?" Our upcoming curriculum will indeed speak to this issue. In addition, we partner with a number of organizations such as Perpetual Help Home and Durham Cares that work in the US to address domestic poverty issues.

In a recent Huffington Post blog post, Thane Kreiner noted that organizations known best for tackling poverty in the developing world actually do work here in the United States:

Grameen...began doing business in the U.S. in early 2008, when it opened the first outpost of Grameen America in Queens, New York. It now operates a total of seven branches -- in Indianapolis, Omaha and San Francisco, and three others in New York, including one in Manhattan. Indeed, just miles away from Wall Street, where billions of dollars change hands every day, a Bangladeshi social venture is providing the poor with access to credit free of the fraudulent terms they're typically forced to live with. And it has plans to expand....Grameen isn't the only social venture to successfully transition from the developing world to the developed. There's also the non-profit Kiva.org, which allows microfinance institutions from around the globe to post profiles of qualified local entrepreneurs on its site and invites would-be lenders to browse and fund those individuals over the Internet.

According to Kreiner, Kiva has a "Kiva City" program here in the States, and Samasource, another microfinance institution is beginning to focus attention here in the US.

You can read Thane Kreiner's From There to Here: Social Enterprise and Reverse Innovation here.