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Whether it is money for supplies to enable a woman to buy supplies for making batik handicrafts in Indonesia or to purchase a cow to sell the milk, microloans are opening the door for millions of poor people, particularly women, to escape the grinding poverty that pervades so many Third World nations.

Microloans are rapidly becoming integral to a whole new way of attacking poverty in developing countries. The focus is on building economic growth from the bottom up, rather than relying solely on governments or large scale enterprises. For example, in one African village, an artisan used a microloan to buy power tools and start a furniture-making business. The power for the tools comes from solar panels that brought electricity to the village for the first time. The panels power for pumping water and running radios and other electronic devices as well. A non-profit marketing organization provides a pipeline for the furniture to be sold online or in shops in the United States and Canada.

Microloans began with the pioneering ideas of Dr. Muhammad Yumas, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in founding and developing the first microloan organization, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The record for microloans is impressive. The Grameen Bank alone has provided $7 billion in loans to over 7 million people in 80,000 villages. The success rate is high, thanks to the community-based nature of the programs. Over 98% of the Grameen Bank's loans are repaid (other groups report similar figures). Studies show those who receive the loans raise their incomes by an average of 48%.

This is the new reality of aid to Third World nations, and it is a movement that is growing daily. Capital for microloans comes from donors in donors, mostly in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Anyone with a few extra dollars can lend these entrepreneurs capital to start or expand businesses.

LENDING TO THIRD WORLD ENTREPRENEURS

There are now an estimated 7000 groups providing microloans worldwide. Here are some examples. ACCION, the Microloan Foundation, and Kiva.org are well-known and have outstanding track records.

Donations to ACCION are "permanent"when the loans are repaid, the money is "recycled," providing loans to more entrepreneurs. A donation is not "spent," it is invested and re-invested. ACCION has now made loans to almost 5 million people totaling more than $12 billion dollars in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. 97% of the loans are fully repaid by the borrowers out of their

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