This two-year-old video from Unitus is an excellent introduction to the idea of international microfinance. To see what microenterprise training and finance looks like in the Bay Area, check out Women's Initiative's videos here.
Watch this 14-minute video to learn how Unitus works to alleviate global poverty through microfinance.
Microfinance products such as savings accounts, microcredit loans (usually $50 to $150), and health insurance empower the poor to lift themselves out of poverty. Through microfinance, they can secure better nutrition, education, healthcare and housing for their families. Microfinance has helped millions in developing countries raise their standards of living and protect themselves from economic setbacks.
Unitus is a global microfinance accelerator that acts as a social venture capital investor for the microfinance industry. Unitus identifies the highest-potential microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries and helps accelerate their growth through capital investments and capacity-building consulting, thus empowering them to help exponentially more poor people worldwide. In doing so, Unitus aims to demonstrate that MFIs can be run as profitable, large-scale, poverty-focused businesses with links to local capital markets. As of October 2005, Unitus had seven MFI partners worldwide serving more than 504,000 poor clients.
Note: Nothing in this video should be considered an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Unitus and its affiliates do not have any securities or investment opportunities available to the public.