{"id":42798,"date":"2017-08-20T17:51:08","date_gmt":"2017-08-20T21:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging21.finca.org\/uncategorized-en-ca\/microfinance-empowers-women"},"modified":"2024-11-04T02:07:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T07:07:41","slug":"microfinance-empowers-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finca.org\/en-ca\/microfinance-empowers-women","title":{"rendered":"How Microfinance Empowers Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

A billion women, or 40% of the global female population, don\u2019t have access to a bank account. Many of these women have simple dreams about a better life \u2013 to get books for their children or provide clean water and nutritious food for their families.\u00a0 Yet, they don\u2019t have the means to earn income, receive capital or create businesses to invest in their modest goals.<\/p>\n

FINCA is changing this. FINCA empowers women through increasing their access to microfinance services<\/a>. Since 1985, over 4 million low-income women have improved their lives with the help of FINCA\u2019s financial services.<\/p>\n

Our formula to empower these women is simple: with your support, we give a small loan to a hardworking woman to start or expand her small business. She uses the profits from her business to fulfil one of her modest dreams<\/a>. As her business succeeds and she pays the loan back to FINCA, those funds go back to work to making another woman\u2019s dream come true.<\/p>\n

The story of Noor Zia, a mother of six in Afghanistan<\/a>, is like the story of so many of our clients throughout Latin America, Eurasia, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. With a large family to support and no job, Noor decided to invest her limited savings to purchase cosmetics to start a beauty salon at home but struggled to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

Here are 4 ways microfinance empowered Noor and millions of other women.<\/p>\n

1. Creates Entrepreneurship<\/h3>\n

When women get access to financial services, many are able to invest in their talents by starting or expanding their own businesses. They are able to purchase equipment or buy supplies in bulk, helping to increase their profits every month.<\/p>\n

Noor invested her first FINCA loan of $100 in her business by expanding the inventory of her home-based salon. After paying off her initial loan, Noor\u2019s business and income steadily grew over the years.\u00a0 She received additional FINCA loans to open her first salon in the market.<\/p>\n

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