5 Quick Reasons Why You Should Support Microfinance

In honor of Women's History Month!

Microfinancing, according to Google, “refers to an array of financial services, including loans, savings and insurance, available to poor entrepreneurs and small business owners who have no collateral and wouldn’t otherwise qualify for a standard bank loan.” Basically, microfinancing is lending small amounts of money to poor people and teaching them financial skills. They use this money to build businesses and invest in their families. The main idea is to provide people with not only money, but a way to generate money by themselves. This way, they don’t become dependent on humanitarian aid and lift themselves out of poverty. If you're not sold yet, here are some reasons why you should donate to a microfinance firm today:

Microfinancing is awesome. Seriously.

It prevents people from becoming dependent on foreign aid and gives them the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty. A one time donation can affect someone’s life forever (not to mention their families and the effect it has on them).

Giving women economic independence makes them less prone to domestic violence.

Via media.giphy.com

Studies show that giving women economic independence makes them less likely to fall victim to domestic violence. If the women are no longer dependent on their husbands for money, they are free to leave abusive relationships. They also have more power within their own household. That's amazing!.

Investing in women is investing children's education.

Via media.giphy.com

Worldwide, women invest 90% of their incomes back into their families. Men only invest 30% of their income into their families. Investing in women makes sense because they prioritize the interests of their children and family over themselves.

When women earn more than their partners, studies show that their children stay in school longer and their health and nutrition improve. This is directly because women are better than their husbands at managing the finances of their households. Its that simple.

It ends the cycle of poverty

Women make up 70% of the world’s poor. This. Is. Not. Acceptable. By targeting and empowering women, we are addressing the large majority of impoverished people.

As we mentioned before, giving women economic independence has enormous benefits for their families. In this sense, investing in WWB not only eradicates poverty, but the cycle of poverty as well by providing children with better futures.

It empowers women.

Women are still oppressed and subjugated around the world. There’s the gender pay gap (for every $1 a man makes in the U.S, his female equal makes only $0.75), and there’s the fact that 1 and 3 women around the world will experience sexual violence in their lifetimes. And this is just the beginning of the depressing statistics. There's not enough room to list them all out tbh. So yeah, you could say that problems still exists.

All evidence suggest that empowering women economically is crucial to achieving equality, and you can help!

So what are you waiting for? Go donate now to Women's World Banking, Kiva, and other really great Microfinancing firms! You can make a difference!

Via libbyvanderploeg.com