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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…
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On the Right Track: Early Stage Scholarships in Zimbabwe
Shyam readily – and fondly – recalls observing young girls in Zimbabwe skipping their way to school at 4:30 in the morning. It’s a memory he can recount in vivid detail – and one that certainly left an impression on him. “There’s nothing like the sunsets and sunrises in Africa. The soil is blood red,…
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What’s in a Name?
SKIpgo Little girls skipped along the side of a dust road as an African sunrise peeked above the horizon, never knowing that the lasting image they created inspired the name of a scholarship program. It was 4:30 in the morning, and Shyam was driving with colleagues through the bush—rural areas—of Zimbabwe. They passed countless children who walked…
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¿Por qué Chile?
Of all the places in the world SKI Charities could extend to, you might be wondering, “Why Lebu, Chile?” In our last blog post, we talked with Shyam about his most recent travels to Lebu, where he discussed the vibrant presence of the indigenous Mapuche culture and his admiration of their hard work. How did…
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Our Mothers, Our Inspiration
While the Grameen Bank gave SKI Charities its infrastructural model, the main impetus behind creating the organization was very personal. SKI Charities founder, Shyam K. Iyer, credits his mother for inspiring him to make the charity a reality: “In her family, my mother is 8 of 9 kids and the older girls were just sort…
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Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank, an Inspiration for SKI Charities
SKI Charities founder, Shyam K. Iyer, is the first to admit that he did not invent the concept of microfinance. Nor did he pioneer the idea of extending microfinance opportunities specifically to women. Iyer comments, “What we’re doing, we think it’s unique in the places we’ve gone, but I didn’t invent the concept of micro-finance.…