You may be shocked to learn that there are somewhere between three and four billion people in the world today who live on $2.00 a day or less. In an attempt to address this human tragedy, so-called experts have advocated an enforced redistribution of the worlds wealth, which does not address the real problem, and has clearly proven to be a failed experiment.  Other well-intentioned organizations, even churches, have poured vast sums of money into aid programs, only to discover that perpetual donor-funding is not the answer, and often creates more problems that it solves.  However, there is something that is making a huge impact and has helped literally millions of people.  For nearly twenty years microfinance organizations have been making small (micro) loans to the poor to help them start or expand their own small businesses.  This village banking, or barefoot banking as some call it, has helped hundreds of thousands of families break out of the cycle of poverty.

"The poor stay poor not because they are lazy, but because they have no access to capital."   Milton Friedman, 1976 Nobel Prize

Microfinance initiatives around the world have proven that there are millions of impoverished people who given the opportunity are capable of working their way out of poverty with the help of a small business loan.  This has worked the world over, but is particularly relevant in sub-Sahara Africa, where poverty is at the highest levels and the cost to lift a life out of poverty is remarkably low.