Socialter

An incubator for microentrepreneurs

March 16th, 2010 § 0

From São Paulo, Brazil. (read this article in French, Spanish, Portuguese) The Fondação Getulio Vargas (FGV) is the Brazilian equivalent of HEC. In 2001, students took an initiative that deserves we pay attention to it: they created, with the help of teachers, an incubator for microentrepreneurs. The idea? Microentrepreneurs from poorer backgrounds generally lack experience and technical knowledge, thus...

Is green tourism mature? #1

March 16th, 2010 § 0

From Bonito, Brasil. February 2010. (read in French, Spanish, Portuguese). Bonito and its region is a reference in Brasil as regards biodiversity and ecotourism. As a matter of fact, there is a lot of tourism agencies, hotels and sites that pretend to be « ecological » in this region. We chose to visit one of the 27 natural sites,...

Banco Bem, a bank that wishes you well

March 12th, 2010 § 0

From the Morro São Benedito, city of Vitoria, Espirito Santo State, Brazil. February 2010. (Read the article in French, Spanish, Portuguese). We chose to visit the Banco Bem, among the 50 community banks in Brazil for one simple reason: their video presentation, posted on youtube (the video Somos do bem). Banco Bem, or rather the « Atelie das...

When the poor districts create their own currency

March 9th, 2010 § 0

From the Morro São Benedito, city of Vitoria, Espirito Santo State, Brazil. February 2010. (read the article in French, Spanish, Portuguese) We have already mentioned the community banks with Fundefir, Venezuelan Foundation (see article on Socialter, or Rue 89). The community banks are those banks developed in poor neighborhoods by the residents themselves and which are designed...

The war against coca

March 1st, 2010 § 0

Photo Mercopress The impact of a small leaf French version here Coca leaf is at the core of the war that keeps on disrupting Colombia, funding guerillas as well as paramilitary forces. Peru, in the other side of the continent, is for his part divided between legal and illegal « cocaleros» : In Bolivia, Evo Morales is the leader of...