HOW THE SMALLEST LOAN CAN MAKE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE
Sufia Begum was a single mother living in absolute poverty in Bangladesh in the 1970s. Working ravagingly long days, weaving bamboo stools, Sufia was barely able to survive and provide for her three children—until someone made her a small loan, which enabled her to strengthen her small business and allowed her to work her way towards self-sufficiency.
The amount of Sufia’s loan was $27. Twenty-seven dollars. It was granted to Sufia by Muhammad Yunus, who foundedGrameen Bank and, in 2006, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in microfinance.
In the wake of “the microfinance revolution”, inspirational stories like Sufia’s now abound.
What is Microfinance?
Microfinance is the provision of financial services, such as microcredit loans, savings and micro-insurance, to very poor people who would not otherwise have access to formal banking services.Small, non-collateralized microcredit loans enable impoverished women to create and build sustainable livelihoods, earning an income for themselves and their families.
Microfinance has proven to be a powerful tool in the fight against poverty.
Microfinance services have been predominantly oriented towards women. This is in part because the majority of the world’s most poor people are women. It is also because lending to women has proven particularly effective and successful.
Microfinance is a powerful key tool in the fight against poverty and W4 passionately supports grassroots microfinance initiatives aimed at helping poor women to become more self-sufficient.
The Women’s Worldwide Web is dedicated to advancing the efforts of organizations that:
- are helping ultra-poor women through microfinance aimed primarily at alleviating poverty and empowering women—andare offeringthe most favourable interest rates, terms and conditionsfor ultrapoor women;
- are harnessing microfinance within a holistic, integrated approach to women’s empowerment: providing in addition, other crucial, complementary capacity-building services, such as business-literacy training, health education, gender and women’s rights awareness training, and mentoring, all of which help to optimize the impact of microfinance.
These organizations are doing extraordinary work. But funding constraints stand in the way of them doing more.
How you can help: the gift that keeps on giving…
Fund a microloan and help catalyze the entrepreneurial creativity of women around the world.Yourmicrofinancedonationcan enable a woman to purchase vital capital equipment (tools and materials) to set up an income-generating business and/or grow a small business.
Funding a microfinance loan for a woman can have a powerful impact: it’s a gift that keeps on giving because, once the loan is repaid, the funds can be recycled for another loan—setting a virtuous cycle in motion.
Together, let’s end poverty and help women to build better lives for themselves and their families.
