Dan Kaskubar's Page

The adventure continues…

Maranatha Integrated Schools Project continues to work with interns. This summer, another MBA (this time from Stanford GSB), Rugaba Kanani, is working alongside Patrick and the rest of Maranatha’s staff to plan and implement a strategy to transform the school farm into a sustainable enterprise. Check out Rugaba’s blog, “Lessons From Africa”! Posted in Unrefined [...]

Microfinance in Uganda: Part 2 of 2

As an example of a Tier 3 Micro Desposit-taking Institution (MDI), Uganda Microfinance Limited (UML) has a branch in Mityana. They operate very much like a regular bank, and their clients on the whole are much better off financially than the average Ugandan (see http://www.accion.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Document.Doc?id=118 for the documentation). They are audited by Deloitte in order [...]

Microfinance in Uganda – Part 1 of 2

As the Vice President of the Microfinance Alliance (http://www.microfinancealliance.org), a student group at the University of Minnesota promoting awareness of microfinance, part of what I have come here to do is investigate opportunities for students to get involved in microfinance in Uganda. Prior to coming to Uganda, I took a graduate survey course in microfinance [...]

Water: Part 5 of 5 – The Business Opportunity

Finally, getting to the part that I can pitch in on! If you only read one post in my entire blog up until this point, read this one (but you may need to read the 4 previous posts for context). I have come to investigate and learn for myself what types of products and services [...]

Water: Part 4 of 5 – One HWTS Model – the Biosand Filter (Warning: long post)

One type of household water treatment product that I’ve encountered here is the Biosand Filter (BSF). It was developed by Dr. David Manz of the University of Calgary nearly 20 years ago, and it is the primary technology promoted by the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST, http://www.cawst.org). It is a modified slow-sand [...]