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California group helps immigrants move into traditional financial sector

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Many immigrants bring their home cultures with them when they come to the United States. Often, that means informal savings arrangements that work on a small scale, but don't help immigrants get the sort of credit report and credit rating that's necessary for major financial endeavors. Until now.
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Chilean social entrepreneur saves families money by taking detergent out of its packaging

When it comes to detergent, the price is in the packaging. A lot of the price, anyway. And that means people get a better deal when they buy in bulk. But for many families surviving day by day, bulk buying is an unthinkable luxury. So one entrepreneur decided to do away with the packaging all together....
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Communities seek to forge small business ties between Mexico, U.S.

Mexican entrepreneurs are looking to north to build on successes their businesses are already having in their home country. But this can be difficult. So now, both Mexican and American officials are seeking ways to augment these ties -- for the benefit of both countries....
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Singapore transplants create iPad app, comic book spinoff, to teach Chinese to English speakers

Yen Yen Woo and Colin Goh want their daughter to learn to speak Chinese. They moved to New York from Singapore, so it's important to them that their daughter reflect both American and Chinese cultures. So they created the Dim Sum Warriors to do just that....
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Pakistani man turns dust into treasure

Afsiroon Naqas scrapes dirt off the ground of the Rawalpindi, Pakistan, market. He's not trying to clean the place up, but rather to find little bits of gold that through a little bit of alchemy he can turn into $8 of gold — which he uses to feed his family....
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Asian market in Missouri becomes hub of many different immigrant communities

Chong's Oriental Market in Columbia, Mo., has been serving the city's Asian community for nearly 25 years. But as the community has diversified, owner Daewun Shin has added staples and ingredients from a whole host of other communities, especially those from Africa....
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Successful energy development program in Haiti shut down because of funding

A United Nations group set out to clean up a Port-au-Prince neighborhood by converting trash to cooking fuel. It was a project with many goals, that ultimately wasn't sustainable financially. It seems many programs in Haiti suffer under their own weight....
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Arab Spring presents opportunities for Middle Eastern women entrepreneurs

Women across the Middle East are stepping into the workforce and into the entrepreneur force, and the turmoil of the economic spring is in some ways making that possible. Women face barriers to professional growth across the Arab world, and being their own bosses helps alleviate that....
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Columbia University janitor graduates with degree in Classics

It's not every day that someone employed as a janitor can graduate with a degree from Columbia University. But Gac Filipaj, a refugee who fled war-torn Yugoslavia in the 1990s, became that guy this month. He earned a degree in Classics from Columbia after spending 12 years as both a college janitor and a college student....
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'Cash Mobs' profit locally owned stores

A new phenomenon, called “Cash Mobs,” is spreading across the country, changing the way people view local businesses. Similar to flash mobs, Cash Mobs organize customers to spend money at struggling locally owned businesses to support their community. ...
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