Activity Description: Rahimafrooz Batteries Limited is a subsidiary of Rahimafrooz Energy Services, a private energy company operating in Bangladesh. In an attempt to tap Bangledesh's underserved and rural markets, Rahimafrooz Energy Services created Rahimafrooz Batteries Limited, which sells and installs a wide variety of solar powered devices, including solar powered water heaters and solar emergency lanterns.

Activity Description: Run by students of the University of Dhaka and based in Mirpur, Dhaka, and Bangladesh, Xayan-IT is an ICT-driven social venture which provides youth with theoretical and practical ICT education. The objective of Xayan-IT is to harness the skills and talents of young people to help them create sustainable and challenging employment for themselves.

Activity Description: Kazi Tea is the first internationally recognized organic garden in Bangladesh. The Garden has its own dairy farm and produces tea and medicinal herbs for local and foreign markets.

In addition to selling tea and herbs, the Kazi company also teaches classes (farming, hygiene, adult education, and IT) and provides recreational activities to the local community. Kazi also offers no-interest loans to alleviate poverty through cattle-rearing micro-businesses.

Activity Description: The GrameenPhone Village Phone project provides door-to-door telecommunication services to the rural poor in Bangladesh. Each Village Phone remains under the custody of a village pay phone operator, who is responsible for extending the services to the customers; the operator’s income is derived from air time charges paid by the customers and a flat service charge.

The program has now spread in more than 35,000 villages in 61 out of 64 districts of the country, and has distributed over 150,000 Village Phones across Bangladesh. Similar programs have been replicated in India and Africa by local organizations in partnership with Grameen Phone.

Activity Description: With a history of microfinancing in Bangladesh dating back to the 1970's, local NGO BRAC is well versed in the opportunties to break the cycle of poverty that such loans provide. From the beginning however, BRAC has placed an equal importance on micro-enterprise development as a means to maximize the return obtained by the poor.

Activity Description: Founded in 1996 under the umbrella of the Grameen Bank, NGO Grameen Shakti (GS) focuses on the development, marketing, and delivery of renewable energy resources for poverty alleviation and income generation in the rural villages of Bangladesh. In a region where some 70% of the population is deprived of conventional electricty, access to electric lighting permits the extension of business and trade, children's education, and household activities into the evening hours.

Activity Description: The World Bank and the People's Republic of Bangladesh, along with various microfinance organizations, partnered in 2002 to bring electricity to the rural population, which accounts for almost 63 million people in Bangladesh. Low cost solar panels were developed to assist in installing 50,000 Solar Home Systems in order to increase people's access to a reliable electricity supply. Similarly, the goal of the project was to enable economic development while preventing atmospheric carbon emissions, which is a standard byproduct of electricity.

Activity Description: CEWDC is a women's co-op in Char Montaz, Bangladesh that assembles and sells solar home lighting systems, as well as provides recharging services for depleted batteries. The women were taught how to assemble the products by their German suppliers. CEWDC has 30 members.