SKI Charities

Tag: microfinance

  • Happy 3rd Birthday SKIC! – Zimbabwe Photo Journal

    In October of 2010, Shyam K. Iyer began SKI Charities. Two countries, three projects, and hundreds of beneficiaries later, the organization is now celebrating it’s 3rd birthday. And we are just getting started. To celebrate the occasion we commissioned a photojournal of our very first project, the SKImfi Microfinance Institute in Mutare, Zimbabwe. To view…

  • A Conversation with Shyam: Inspiration Found in Local Mapuche Craft-Making and Cuisine

    Shyam returned from his most recent trip to Lebu, Chile inspired by the crafts, textiles, and food being created by SKImfi microfinance beneficiaries of indigenous Mapuche heritage. SKI Charities aims to give women a path to start and grow sustainable businesses that encourage them to utilize their culturally-embedded skillset. Listen in to hear more about…

  • Why Focus on Women?

    SKI Charities founder Shyam has been asked why it is that the charity focuses exclusively on women. When he visits town halls and communities to tell them about SKIC, plenty of men attend. Some of them jokingly (and others more aggressively) ask him, “Why are we not included? Why do you just focus on women?…

  • Why Choose Microfinance?

    Founder Shyam K. Iyer discusses the basics of SKIC’s SKImfi program. “The term ‘micro,’ at least to me, connotes community-mindedness. The business efforts of the women we work with aren’t global. They focus on very small economies, on their individual communities, and, if nothing else, SKI Charities is a community-minded organization. We believe that focusing…

  • A Conversation with Shyam: Where We Are and Where We’re Going

    For our fourth SKI Charities podcast, founder Shyam K. Iyer sits down to discuss why he chose to begin the charity in Mutare, Zimbabwe. He goes on to talk about how he chose the second charity site (Lebu, Chile) and what the similarities are between the two. Listen in on the discussion, and hear Shyam’s…

  • Why Zimbabwe?

    When he first began SKIC, Shyam was asked countless times why he didn’t start it in India: “You’re of Indian origin, everybody is already there – why not go there too?” And that’s exactly why he didn’t. Shyam reasoned that, while there is plenty of demand in India, there’s also plenty of supply. He wanted…

  • Microfinance 101: What is it?

    Encyclopedia Britannica will tell you that microfinance is “a means of extending credit, usually in the form of small loans with no collateral, to nontraditional borrowers such as the poor in rural or undeveloped areas.” It was a concept institutionalized in 1976 by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and adopted by SKI Charities founder, Shyam K. Iyer. Shyam…