Why Women?

Today, in my Kiva group -the Freethinkers group, yay!- someone raised the very valid question of "Why women?". What s/he was asking was in fact why is it that Kiva or the MFI (Micro Finance Institutions) seem to choose more female than male entrepreneurs to help with loans.

The reasons are several and valid but you can summarize them in one sentence: in the kind of environment that MFIs deal with, women have proven to be more responsible plus they tend to "spread" the wealth in ways men don't.

Nevertheless, the question reminded me of a great video done by another group that is trying to raise awareness about how powerful can be to help (with a loan, with a scholarship, you name it) women. I think it would be really difficult to try to explain it better... take a look:

I think the video explains it pretty well but if you want to read more about this specific issue, you can go to their site (girleffect.org) and check the facts. I have to add that no matter who is talking about this "Girl Effect" (Nike Foundation, reaaally?), the effect is very real. I have seen it first hand and believe me, it is amazing.

PS: I have been meaning to add this video to the blog for long time, as I think it is also a great example of how you can do a great presentation with just words if you have a good message... thanks Duboisi for giving me the perfect reason to overcome my procrastination with this posting!