This Program Is Helping Refugees Break Into the Tech Industry

Funding with too many strings attached makes it hard for non-profits to grow and be impactful. An American organization, Nonprofit Finance Fund (N.F.F.) Capital Partners division, is finding ways to finance non-profits likes companies and has already shown great success in pilot situations.

American humanitarian aid and programs by the United Nations have proved beneficial to equip Middle Eastern refugees with resources for self-settlement outside of camps. The self-settlement model has empowered refugees to become more productive members of society when they return home.

When immigrant children come to America, they are faced with culture shock, language barriers, and a system of education different from where their original country. Houston’s Las Americas Newcomer School is designed to ease the adjustment of immigrant and refugee children as they enter the American educational system. Las Americas offers competitive wages for teachers, teaching in several different languages, and preparation for the SAT as the school has the highest rate of minority participation.

The company that manufactures Lifestraw, a water purification device, has found a way to distribute their product to impoverished Kenyan families for free, while still making a profit. In the global carbon credit market, businesses receive carbon credits for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These credits can then be sold to companies who need to offset their carbon emissions, allowing green companies to make a profit off of their small ecological footprint.

This is a column on an important new development program in use in at least 40 developing countries: give the poor cash payments, contingent on their use of health clinics and their children’s school attendance, to help break the cycle of poverty.

The company that manufactures Lifestraw, a water purification device, has found a way to distribute their product to impoverished Kenyan families for free, while still making a profit. In the global carbon credit market, businesses receive carbon credits for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These credits can then be sold to companies who need to offset their carbon emissions, allowing green companies to make a profit off of their small ecological footprint.

Attending college is not always a given option for gifted teenagers from less-than-wealthy backgrounds. National organization QuestBridge creates a way for low-income and minority high-achieving students to go to their dream colleges free of cost.

Lack of reading material is not only a third-world problem – many poor families in the United States lack access to and funds for books. A program that helps get books to into the homes of low-income families can boost literacy, and help publishers, too.

In combatting poverty, a giant informal economic system has quietly emerged in Africa. Women participate in micro-finance organizations that loan money in order to allow them to create businesses and become self-managing.

Through creative financing and new technology, a non-profit in San Francisco is making farmers markets more accessible to residents who rely on federal nutrition benefits.