by Vicki Flaugher, CEO of SmartWoman Guides in celebration of Blog Action Day to discuss poverty and it’s solutions.

Microfinancing, according to Wikipedia, refers to the provision of financial services to poor or low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. The term also refers to the practice of sustainably delivering those services.

More broadly, it refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.”

Many female entrepreneurs worldwide have taken loans, which are relatively small amounts in US dollars, and turned them into businesses that feed dozens of people, sometimes their whole village. I love this idea because it creates a cultural, psychological, and financial infrastructure that encourages the democratization of social power. Anyone who applies, provided they meet the often relaxed criteria, can get money to help them build a business.

How can microfinancing bring world peace? Some would argue that full-fledged wars, or even just one well-placed bullet, is the answer to eliminating dictators and oppressive governments, but I don’t. For one, I am a pacifist, and two, assassination of a leader does not create the infrastructure for democratized power that needs to be in place for a general population to rise up.

Much like the elephants in a circus who are trained from birth that they can’t escape because they are held by a heavy chain and then eventually not needing the chain at all to stay put, all of us learn to adapt. It’s called “learned helplessness”. It’s negative effects, in terms of poverty and oppression, where a people stay suppressed because it’s how to survive, can be reversed. We can learn that there are alternative solutions and act upon them, given sufficient hope and support and belief in the possibility of success.

Microfinancing allows the environment to support social change. This change leads to economic freedom and independence of both spirit and financial sustenance. When a people decide for themselves they’ve had enough and they deserve better, oppressive governments don’t stand a chance. They crumble. And what’s left once they crumble are citizens who are able to stand up on their own, who choose their own destiny, who face the future making their own choices.

When people are not hungry, war is less common.When citizens have the means to create businesses and provide for their family the food they need to prevent hunger, the urge for war diminishes. Using the premise that it’s better to teach someone to fish rather than give them a fish, microfinancing allows individuals to be empowered and capable to achieve their dreams. It grows the required personal and cultural infrastructure that needs to be in place for the democratization of social power to occur.

As entrepreneurs ourselves, I believe it is our priviledge and duty to reach out to our fellow entrepreneurs worldwide. Let’s build a peaceful, loving world together. Today, you could give $25 and enable a woman in Africa to start a business. I encourage you all to visit some of the links below and do what you can. It all matters and it all helps.

Thank you for all you do and have a great day!

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

follow me on Twitter: SmartWoman

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