Have you heard that Good Return is celebrating our 20th anniversary this September? Meet Sandy.

Have you heard that Good Return is celebrating our 20th anniversary this September? Meet Sandy - one of our ‘20 stars’.

This year Good Return celebrates our 20th anniversary - that's 20 years of building opportunities for women and those who are marginalised in our region. To mark the occasion, we want to recognise 20 individuals who have shaped our story and have been vital to delivering our work and impact.

One of 'Stars of Good Return' is Sandy Carvajal. In this blog, we take the opportunity to celebrate Sandy’s Good Return journey. 

Starting as a volunteer, and joining the Good Return family 

I started at Good Return as a volunteer and ended up working there for six years. This is a testament to the authenticity, capacity, drive and passion of the founder, Guy Winship and the truly dedicated and talented people who come to work for Good Return. Good Return was like a family, who aligned with my values and my passion for alleviating world poverty, who both encouraged my growth and helped hone my skills in international development and impact investing.

A focus on tackling poverty in Laos

I have many fond memories of my time at Good Return. One particular memory that has stayed with me was working on the Laos Rural Livelihood Program that supported hundreds of households through a graduation out of poverty model. There were so many challenges to overcome in the delivery of this complex project in a remote southern province of Laos - this only made the small triumphs even more memorable. 

“I still remember meeting one particularly enterprising woman on this project vividly”. 

When I first met her on the project her bank balance was near zero. On a follow-up monitoring visit, she showed me how her small business had diversified from goats, to chickens and vegetables and she was making money from all three enterprises. Moreover, she had used her savings to buy a second-hand truck. She and her son now had plans to start distributing other villager’s vegetables in the city as a fourth income stream! Considering the level of poverty required to qualify for this program her and her family’s achievements were something truly special to see.

A deep understanding of the impact of microfinance
A second memory that will stick with me was my work at Good Return supporting microfinance institutional partners in the Philippines. Through this work I became familiar with the various savings and lending groups in the area. Consequently, I was tasked with organising an Inaugural Volunteer Trip to visit women micro-entrepreneurs and the MFI staff that supported them. A group of ten women and one male volunteer raised more than $100,000 for Good Return’s programs and I escorted them to the Philippines to see the work on-the-ground and trek through the mountains. It was truly refreshing to see international development work through the fresh eyes of the volunteers and to be able to field nuanced questions around operations, outcomes and the power of financial access and education. It was an extraordinary and bonding trip with board members, ambassadors and supporters - many of whom remain committed to this work today.

Innovation is key to Good Return’s mission to tackle financial inclusion 
Good Return’s advocacy, capacity for innovation and spirit of partnership allows it to amplify its impact in the region for marginalised communities. Good Return is a great promoter of financial inclusion for poor communities and tireless advocate for women entrepreneurs bringing much needed capital, partners and programs to support inclusion across Asia Pacific. I particularly love how Good Return amplifies its impact through innovation. For example, they reached millions with financial education messages in Cambodia through public broadcast commercials for a national education campaign that centred on savvy spending practices that were catchy and humorous. Good Return also fills needed gaps, supporting impact-first investing and gender lens investing to push forward small and medium enterprises that are otherwise left behind.

The team at Good Return thank Sandy for being a part of the Good Return journey and sharing her story with us!