Big ambitions for small loans

By: Micah Bacheller

This article is about lending money to poor women in Latin America. It is interesting because it brings up two vital points: helping women overcome poverty, and actually giving more socioeconomic power to those women. The program is called Pro Mujer, which simply means pro woman. The basic idea is that the program will lend small loans (typically $50 USD) to impoverished women, who then use this money to start up a "mini-business". There has been great success with this program, where women have been able to help out with family expenses. The program has gotten recognition from bigger investors, because the repayment rate for these loans are at 99%, so it is basically guaranteed that one will get his investment back. As the program expands, it is trying to gain more interest abroad to be able to give out bigger loans in the future.