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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report from voaspecialenglish.com | http Modern microfinance started with economist Muhammad Yunus. In the nineteen seventies, he started what became the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He and the bank shared the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand six for the idea of offering small loans to the poor to fight poverty. In twenty ten, reports of harmful micro lending methods and corruption shook the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Yunus recently said in the New York Times that things got out of control. He noted that Andhra Pradesh had intensive lending activity at the time. We spoke to Ghiyath Nakshbendi about changes in the world of microfinance. He is an expert in international business and teaches microfinance as a business model at the Kogod School of Business at American University. He says the government of India in certain states has started taking steps to “guarantee that these institutions are operating under a strict system.”Some experts have raised questions about whether micro lending lifts women or poor families out of poverty. David Roodman is with the Center for Global Development, a research group in Washington. He says microloans do not do a good job fighting poverty. He says over three billion dollars went into microcredit in twenty-ten. But many lenders failed because of bad supervision or failure to repay loans.In one model, governments or nongovernmental organizations give money to microcredit operations …

This is the VOA Special English Health Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Tourists come to Zanzibar for its white sand beaches and historic buildings in Stone Town. But something else also makes its way to the Tanzanian island: heroin trafficked across the Indian Ocean from Asia. Most of the heroin shipped through East Africa is headed for Europe and North America. But Reychad Abdool of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says a lot of it stays on the continent. “We know for a fact that heroin is being used in at least thirty countries in Africa. And we also know for a fact that the number of countries reporting injecting drug use, especially of heroin, is also increasing in Africa.” The problem in Zanzibar has led to some creative local solutions. Suleiman Mauly stopped using heroin six years ago. Now he operates a network of so-called sober houses. These are run by addicts themselves to help one another recover. There are nine sober houses — eight for men and one for women. Mr. Mauly himself went through a drug treatment program in Kenya. But it cost around two thousand dollars, he says. Staying in a sober house costs about one hundred dollars a month. Most of the people are supported by their families. Treatment is based on the idea that drug addiction is more of a public health problem than a crime. Mr. Mauly says this is still a new idea to many people. “Because addiction, it’s a disease, and addicts need treatment. But people, they hear that addicts …

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Companion planting is the idea that some kinds of plants can help each other grow. Plants that are compatible together generally have similar needs in terms of nutrients, soil and moisture levels. Advice about which plants are compatible is sometimes based more on tradition than proof. But experts say there is evidence to support certain combinations. These can improve harvests, reduce disease and help with pest control by attracting helpful insects. For example, some kinds of soil bacteria take nitrogen from the air and make it into a form that plants can use. The plants hold the nitrogen in their roots. Legumes are especially good at this nitrogen-fixing. Then any crops that share the same space as the legumes can get the nitrogen as the roots decompose. Beans and potatoes can also share territory well because their roots reach different levels in the soil. Deep-rooted vegetables get nutrients and moisture from lower down in the soil, so they do not compete with plants with shallower roots. But some plants placed together may harm each other’s development. For example, tomatoes do not like wet soil but watercress does, so you would probably want to keep them separated. Some kinds of produce should be kept apart even after being harvested. This is because of ethylene gas. Ethylene is a plant hormone that can cause some foods to ripen too quickly. Apples release ethylene gas. Apricots …