Women Have Become the Face of Poverty

 Women Have Become the Face of Poverty

Women have become the face of devastating poverty. More than one billion people live on less than one dollar a day and the large majority of them are women. They struggle daily to feed their children just enough to keep them alive. Sending them to school is just a dream because they can’t pay school fees.

Since 1976, Professor Muhammad Yunus has worked to break this vicious cycle of poverty, giving tiny loans to the world’s poorest people, mostly women, so that they may lift themselves and their families out of poverty.  This loan program, called microcredit, developed into Grameen Bank. More than 95 percent of its loans go to very poor women. In the words of Professor Yunus, “Poor people are not asking for charity; charity is not a solution for poverty.” By creating opportunities for women to help themselves, Grameen Bank and Professor Yunus’ vision have helped individuals, families and villages escape devastating poverty.

And help themselves they certainly do, by the millions. Some of these women now have the money to buy supplies to start a weaving business. Others sell eggs and produce after raising chickens and nurturing a vegetable plot. On the technology side, some have become village phone operators, using their loans to purchase a mobile phone that becomes the “public phone booth” for their neighbors. What they start doing is what we do — earn a living that puts food on their tables, sends their children to schools and gives their family a dream for a future. All while paying these loans back at a 98 percent rate.

On December 10, 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank will be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for their innovative programs.  Let’s celebrate the accomplishments of Professor Yunus, the Grameen Bank and the millions of women entrepreneurs around the world by sharing their stories and the impact of this work and taking action to help defeat global poverty. They’ve proven that these poor women can break out of poverty, so let’s see that this program and others like it get the support they need.

Sailesh Mishra
sailesh2000_2000@yahoo.co.uk