You can help end poverty. Start a Village Bank

Half the world's citizens, some three billion people, struggle to live on less than $2 a day. This affects their nutrition, health, and their ability to send their children to school. It also affects the social and political stability of our planet.

How can you join the global movement to end poverty? By starting your own Village Bank. With your friends, family and community you can sponsor a Village Bank. Your team will raise the start-up capital of $5,000 for one Village Bank. You will provide much-needed loan capital for the world's lowest-income and hardest working entrepreneurs. With funds from a Village Bank you will help people around the world create jobs, send their children to school, build assets and improve their standard of living.

Be a leader in FINCA's unprecedented social action campaign to end global poverty - one loan, one woman, one group of committed individuals at a time. The first step is to sign up today, and follow the easy steps for setting up your team's campaign page.

Changing the world starts with you.

Haiti:

The Village Banking group Famn Vayant meets in a church located in the village of Massé, on the southwestern coast of Haiti. The group began with 20 members, but its numbers quickly swelled to 32, evidence of the demand for affordable working capital. See how a Village Bank loan transformed their lives. Famn Vayant members have used their loans shows some small successes, which take on added importance in a country where nearly 80 percent of the population is without work.

Gaspa Garidad is managing a $140 loan. She bakes and sells bread wholesale from her house. She is doing well; in a country where the majority attempt to survive on less than $1 a day, Gaspa is setting aside $6 per week in savings. She looks forward to having even larger loans from FINCA in the future, which will help her to continue expanding her business and her income.

See Village Banking participant stories from around the world.