SKI Charities

Tag: SKI Charities

  • Faces of SKImfi: Prudence K.

    Faces of SKImfi: Prudence K.

    When Prudence and her SKImfi group members gather for business meetings, they begin each session with a chant: “High high, it lifts you high. SKImfi lifts you UP!” Prudence K., a 30-year-old mother of three, launched an electrical supplies business after attending a Selection, Planning and Management workshop with SKImfi Zimbabwe. She accessed a $100…

  • In This Together

    One of the main problems facing aid in the developing world is anonymity. Organizations that provide aid to “the children” or “the hungry” fail to specify whom, precisely, are the recipients of that aid. While these regions often desperately need aid, the blanket statement of “the hungry,” for example, diminishes the individuality of countless people…

  • A Word with our SKIpgo Zimbabwe Program Manager

    Elizabeth, our program manager for SKIpgo-Zimbabwe, discusses her work with SKI Charities and her passion for child development. In your own words, what is your role in SKI charities? I work for the SKIpgo Zimbabwe Trust, one of the projects run by SKI charities in Mutare, Zimbabwe. I recruit candidates who are eligible for the…

  • Less is More: The Benefits of Microfinance

    For SKI Charities, keeping things at a micro level is essential to the organization’s success. Charity founder, Shyam K. Iyer asserts, “When you’re doing microfinance at such a local level, it’s not just about these women creating their own wealth and creating their own businesses. What about the spillover effects?” Shyam notes that SKImfi beneficiaries…

  • 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…

  • Our Project Managers: The Heart of SKIC

    Based in New York City, SKI Charities founder Shyam K. Iyer relies heavily on his project managers and field officers in Mutare, Zimbabwe and Lebu, Chile to monitor and maintain the charity on a day-to-day basis. Though he travels to both locations frequently, Shyam emphasizes that it is the project managers who make the decisions…