Roshaneh Zafar, the founder of the Kashf Foundation and a 2007 Skoll social entrepreneur, is featured on America.gov in the run up to the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit, which will take place April 26-27.  The Summit, which President Obama called for in his Cairo speech last year, will bring together entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs from the [...]

Roshaneh Zafar, a 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur and the founder of the Kashf Foundation, provides a great overview of the microfinance market in Pakistan in this video interview.  It includes a discussion of the factors behind Kashf’s decision to become a deposit taking institution.  It’s a really interesting 7 minute film.  Have a look.

I read Nick Kristof’s book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, last week, but haven’t had a chance to blog about it.  The Oprah Show yesterday, which focused on women’s and girls’ issues and featured Nick and his wife and co-author, Sheryl WuDunn, reminded me.  One of the women profiled on [...]

Years ago, when I first visited Pakistan, it was a spur for me to think hard about the world and about doing something to help. As I walked around breathing in the thick air, I sadly witnessed the abject poverty that over 150 million Pakistanis suffer. Years later, sadly, it’s still time to do something [...]

Kashf Foundation, a microfinance organization in Pakistan run by 2007 Skoll social entreprenuer Roshaneh Zafar, was recently recognized for its positive impact on women by an award from the One Woman Initiative.  The One Woman Initiative, chaired by Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, and supported by the State Department and USAID, is a [...]

Roshaneh Zafar, the founder of the microfinance organization Kashf Foundation and a 2007 Skoll social entrepreneur, has a good column in on “The News International” website outlining the challenges, and power, of microfinance in Pakistan.  The column focuses in particular on how microfinance supports female empowerment.  Per Roshaneh, “Experience and studies have shown that women [...]