Microfinance is...

        Microfinance:

Micro-lending, a growing practice across the world, allows the credit-less poor to receive loans in hopes of breaking the cycle of poverty. Muhammad Yunus (founder of the first Microfinance Bank: Grameen Bank) determined the best way to help the poor was to empower them
        Offering Loans To The “Poorest Poor”:
Micro-finance, a relatively new field (especially in developed countries like the U.S.), caught the attention of many when Grameen Bank founder, Muhammad Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his contributions of finance in Bangladesh and other parts of the world. In hope of addressing poverty through micro-loans, Yunus formed the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1977. The Grameen Bank (and any bank practicing micro-finance) offers credit to the “poorest poor” (unemployed poor) with which they can obtain loans. For many people in this world, due to lack of credit, receiving a loan was an impossibility until the field of micro-finance originated. Micro-finance focuses on providing banking resources to those who would never be considered potential borrowers by traditional financial services. Typical first loans could be around just $10 for those living in underdeveloped countries such as Bangladesh. When asked if, “helping a woman in a village in Nigeria, for example, increase her income from $1 a day to $4 be classified as significant progress?” Alex Counts, CEO of the Grameen Foundation explains, “’you are talking about basic life needs being met’” (Hawser, 24-5). Seemingly insignificant amounts of money can completely reshape a member of the unemployed poor’s chance at survival. With a micro-loan, one can break the cycle of poverty she may be stuck under, begin a viable business, or simply put a roof over her family’s heads. Micro-loans open a world of opportunities for the poor who would otherwise likely die of poverty and offer a realistic solution to reducing world poverty.