10 Million Bangladeshis Move Above $1.25 a Day

I was once in a lobby meeting talking to a Congressional aide about microcredit. I was asking for the Representative to sign onto a bill to grant Muhammad Yunus the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor for his pioneering work with microfinance for the very poor. She said to me something like, "But microcredit only really affects a few people that get loans. Shouldn't we be focusing on industry instead?"

This led to a deeper conversation pointing out that microcredit helps people in a way that they need to be helped, in a way of their choosing. I told her a true story of a boy in Ghana who earned his education through his family's microloan then grew a large business that helps the economy of his country. We talked about it off and on for over a year until the Congresswoman she worked for finally signed onto the bill. But I can't help but wonder if this report from the Microcredit Summit Campaign had been released at the time of that initial conversation- would she have been swayed sooner by the report which can be summed up in the exciting statement "10 Million Bangladeshis Move Above $1.25 a Day"?

This new report is inspiring evidence that microcredit works! Please give it a read:
http://www.microcreditsummit.org/news/10_million_bangladeshis_move_above_1.25_a_day/