World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - (Page 12) M i c r o f i n a n c e A Lot for a Little Sometimes, a small amount of seed money is all it takes to break the cycle of poverty. The growing microfinance movement is planting seeds of health and financial independence around the world, and both borrowers and investors are reaping the benefits. In the e a r ly 1970s, a young economics professor returned to his native bangladesh after earning a degree at Vanderbilt university on a fulbright scholarship. The professor, whose name was Muhammad yunus, soon found a teaching position in the port city he’d grown up in, at Chittagong university. but beyond the city limits, a famine was sweeping the countryside. The elegant theories of his textbooks, yunus discovered, seemed increasingly irrelevant next to the widespread desperation of the poor. in search of a better understanding of what was happening, yunus ventured into a nearby village, where he met women surviving on the profits from bamboo stools, which they made and sold for pennies a day. Their profits could be greatly increased, they told him, if they were not indebted to the local lender, who loaned them the money to buy their supplies and also bought their finished stools at a set price. To help the women pay off their debts and buy a supply of their own materials, yunus loaned 42 villagers a total of $27. no longer in debt to the lender and able to sell their stools to the highest bidder, the women increased their daily profits from a few cents to more than a dollar. by lauren wilCox 12 j a n uar y / feb ruar y 2 0 0 9 | world ark www.h ei f er .o r g oppoSiTe page: phoTo by RaFiQUR RahMaN/ReUTeRS /LaNdov. http://www.heifer.org
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Microfinance: A Lot for a Little Business is Buzzing in Honduras The World Grows Smaller Mixed Media Heifer Spirit Heifer Bulletin Calendar First Person World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 (Page Cover1) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 (Page Cover2) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 (Page 1) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 (Page 2) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Contents (Page 3) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Letters (Page 4) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Letters (Page 5) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - For the Record (Page 6) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - For the Record (Page 7) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The Good Life (Page 8) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The Good Life (Page 9) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Asked and Answered (Page 10) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Asked and Answered (Page 11) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 12) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 13) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 14) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 15) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 16) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 17) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 18) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Microfinance: A Lot for a Little (Page 19) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 20) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 21) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 22) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 23) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 24) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 25) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 26) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Business is Buzzing in Honduras (Page 27) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 28) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 29) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 30) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 31) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 32) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 33) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 34) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 35) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 36) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - The World Grows Smaller (Page 37) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Mixed Media (Page 38) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Mixed Media (Page 39) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Spirit (Page 40) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Spirit (Page 41) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 42) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 43) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 44) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 45) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 46) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 47) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 48) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Heifer Bulletin (Page 49) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Calendar (Page 50) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - Calendar (Page 51) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - First Person (Page 52) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - First Person (Page Cover3) World Ark Magazine - January/February 2009 - First Person (Page Cover4)
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