Micro Credit- Macro Impact

So today in my Anthropology class we watched a movie called "Small Fortunes: Microcredits and the Future of Poverty". The film (made by BYU) was fascinating. I had heard about the concept of micro loans before and thought it sounded like a great idea, but the film really demonstrated just how effective this. It's ingenious and unlike the charities and non-profits this idea is an actual solution for poverty in that it empowers people to support themselves. One man who started issuing these loans in India, went around a village interviewing people to find out how much money it would take for all of them to get them out of debt. Between 42 people, they needed $27 to get out of debt, so he just gave it to them out of his pocket. He then went about trying to find a way to organize a system of doing this. These loans are typically under $100 and given to women in third world countries who can't get loans from traditional banks because they have no collateral. It's counterintuintive that this system would work but amazingly, about 95% of the people repay their loans in full. For many people this solves many societal problems given that providing women with an independent source of income in these patriarchal societies equates to enough finances to educate and feed the children. In the film they mention that for many years the wealthier nations have been focusing on giving handouts and on filtering funds through governments (that are corrupt) which would trickle down to males and may or may not get back to the women and children. With micro loans, they've found that putting money in the hands of the women benefits society as a whole because the women make sure their families are taken care of. It was very emotional for me to watch the men and women interviewed talk about how they have overcome their impoverished situations and their businesses and how their families continue to prosper. They seemed so happy and their was hope in their eyes. Here's the link to the video's intro. It airs on PBS.
http://www.kbyutv.org/smallfortunes/?vid=1
You can also read the borrower's profiles. They have amazing stories and have developed creative ways to grow their businesses with their loans.
http://www.kbyutv.org/smallfortunes/borrowers/