#Ukraine "We could potentially help you", said Erste Bank

In 2010 having discovered the Social Business Tour in Budapest which solicited ideas for social business initiatives I contacted both Grameen Creative Labs and Erste bank with our 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine. 

Dear Jeff,

thank you very much for contacting us concerning Your microfinance inintiative in Tomsk – could you provide us with more information on the activies you are pursuing in Ukraine and Russia currently?

As we are closely cooperating with Grameen Creative Lab currently on the so called Social Business Tour, and as I could understand from your mail you have already tried to be in contact with GCL, I think that we could potentially help you, if we would know what you want is your proposal?

Could you provide us with a summary of your activities and plans where you see our added value?

My very best regards,
Jan

Jan Kouba
Erste Group Bank AG
OE 0196 0324 / good.bee
A-1010 Vienna, Friedrichstrasse 10

I reply and receive an acknowledgement o of submission on 9th July:

Dear Jan,

Thanks very much for your reply. I am copying this to Terry our founder , currently in Ukraine.

The project is described here on our website and later reviewed in an interview for a follow on project in Crimea.

The strategy paper delivered to Ukraine’s government can be found here, in the links on our commercial website you’ll see impacts created when recommendations were implemented by government

Child care reform for example has led to a 40% increase in domestic adoption.

I should also mention, noticing that you have Serbia listed as one of your development areas, that Terry spent a week during 2004 to produce a preliminary proposal for the polluted Bor/Majdanpek region, which he may care to expand on.

Kind regards,

Jeff Mowatt
P-CED UK  

Then it all went quiet.

One of 4 major components of the 'Marshall Plan' was a development centre for social enterprise at Kharkiv National University. We would then discover that Erste Bank joined a British Council/USAID partnership in 2011 for social enterprise development in Ukraine. We were not accepted as partners.when respomding to British Council solitications.

Grameen would go on to create a development centree for social enterprise at Glasgow Caledonina University