147 heads of state committed themselves, in the “Millennium Summit” of the United Nations in 2000, to realize the right of the poor population “to develop and meet the basic needs”, reducing the poor by 50% by 2015, fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The commitment to the poverty alleviation includes the civil society, and as such, the GSD Foundation is “socially responsible” for contributing to these goals, in the communities of the high Andean region of the northern Chimborazo Province in Ecuador.

The following actions performed by GSD regarding the MDGs focus on the microfinance, to a lesser extent on the irrigation (a result of the state's generous offer to fund the works), and on the transverse actions that have enabled us, by May 2010, to support the formation of 64 Community Development Banks (CDB) which cover 2,166 women of which 1,048 members of 34 CDBs are still linked to GSD with loans of high quality with zero nonperforming loan and zero lost loan in 15-year-long history of this rural women organization.

   1. Promote gender equality and empower women
   2. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
   3. Improve maternal health
   4. Achieve universal primary education
   5. Reduce child mortality
   6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
   7. Ensure environmental sustainability
   8. Develop a global partnership for development

We acknowledge the support provided by the "Food Support Program PL480/USDA" Corporation, Catholic Relief Services, Kellogg Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, Ecuadorian-Canadian Development Fund, and Coleman Family (The United States), who at different moments have made it possible to fulfill our commitment.

The videos are being produced with the testimonies of people related to the MDGs, which will be uploaded in the future.

The Solidary Bank in the beginning, currently the International and Bank and PROMERICA have been an extraordinary support for the microfinance service that GSD implemented using the strategy of Community Development Banks, which are associated with hundreds of women family representatives and young women of rural communities of the northern Chimborazo Province.

The alliance with the International Bank and PROMERICA has allowed the indigenous mestizo women to manage the social and economic life, which was traditionally denied to this stratum of population due to the discrimination by income level, gender, or their rural background.

The achievements are evident. Nearly 100% of families associated to the Community Development Banks, within a period of about five years, have overcome the poverty line, come to possess their own small business, and improved or built their houses. All children have come to attend school, completing a high percentage in higher education institutions, access to health services, and meet their basic alimentation needs. The bank members have stopped moving to other provinces. The liquor selling canteens were eliminated. These are all indicators that prove the existence of the development strategy for poor population as a means to reduce the poverty, overcoming the traditional paternalistic action which is nothing but a mechanism of submission to the authorities called development.

Telematics Center provides services to the student population of San Andrés and neighboring communities, in response to demands raised by the members of Community Development Banks, in order to avoid transferring their children to the Riobamba city. The center offers internet access in 12 pieces of computer equipment, photocopying, ringing, coating, and more related services.

The center was created as a result of the participation of GSD in a Regional Project Competition, organized by the Multinational HEWLETT PACKARD(HP) through its Micro-entrepreneurs Development Program with a worldwide support, in which the GSD Foundation of Ecuador, the Foundation of Training for Good Work in Chile, the Gramen Foundation in Argentina, the Catholic University in Peru, and the Foundations of Meta and Incubate Software in the Caribbean coasts of Colombia were the winning organizations.