A mere $200 micro-loan is all it took to change the life of Sharifa and her daughter forever.

The Afghan villager, struggling to survive in this war-torn area, used the loan to start her own business, and invested in a rug loom and weaving supplies. She was soon able to hire other women weavers, freeing up her young daughter to finally go to school.

As Sharifa pays back her loan - micro-finance repayment rates are nearly 100 per cent - she can borrow more to expand her business. She never thought of herself as a role model, but she is now advising other women in the region, with a long tradition of rug weaving, to take control of their lives, too. This is lasting change in a part of the world where women are struggling to be heard.

When the Taliban took power in 1992, Afghan women lost basic human rights as all girls' schools closed and women were barred from working outside the home or from leaving their houses without a male family escort.

Though the Taliban lost power in 2001, many impediments remain for Afghan women and for society in general. Economies and communities need to be rebuilt after decades of war and terror.

Recognizing the ongoing challenges with redeveloping the Afghanistan economy, in May, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) announced a new partnership called the Afghanistan Challenge. The federal agency is working with four development agencies already on the ground in Afghanistan such as Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).

MEDA is focused on helping enterprising Afghan women — many of whom are widows — and their families by providing micro-finance loans and basic business training. Economic empowerment will not only help them feed and clothe their family, but also send their children to school, earning respect both within their family and in the community.

Every dollar donated to MEDA for the Afghanistan Challenge will be matched by CIDA as part of this promising partnership.

As Kim Pityn, Vice-President, International Operations for MEDA, explains MEDA applies business solutions to development challenges, providing its partners with cost-effective, appropriate and sustainable financial services to the poor in developing countries.

"MEDA first became active in microfinance because we believed that the poor are bankable and we wanted to show that poor people were credit-worthy. Offering people a way to recreate local economies and take care of their family instills dignity and self-esteem," Pityn continued.

"For Canada, the economic growth of Afghanistan is important to stabilizing the country and providing opportunities to reduce poverty in the country," notes Minister Beverley Oda, Canada's Minister of International Cooperation. "The success of microfinancing, through MEDA, is helping to create sustainable opportunities for entrepreneurial Afghan women and men."

In fact, MEDA has more than 50 years of experience in international development and has been directly involved in developing rural and urban micro-enterprise credit and training facilities in Haiti, Jamaica, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Russia, Mozambique and Romania. Several of these programs have graduated to fully sustainable, independent financial institutions.

"Hope is far too rare a commodity, yet I see hope in the eyes of these women. A good future for themselves and their children is now a possibility," Pityn said. "MEDA and the Afghanistan Challenge will enable women to help other women, to build communities and networks of trust.

Donors are invited to visit www.medatrust.ca, where they will have two options to donate: They can either make a straight donation or create a portfolio and direct donations to a loan for an Afghan woman, and then follow that loan as she repays it. As the loan is repaid, that money is credited to the donor's portfolio so it can be re-invested with other entrepreneurial women.

What is Microfinance?

Microfinance empowers the disadvantaged. Microfinance is the provision of financial services, including credit, savings, insurance and other services to individuals who would otherwise be excluded from the formal financial sector, usually due to lack of collateral.

Microfinance builds dignity and brings hope, opportunity and economic access to low-income people around the world through a business-oriented approach to development. In the developing world, one way we do this is by making financial services accessible to those who do not generally have access to financial services, together with marketing and business training, to low-income entrepreneurs.

Microfinance is sustainable. In microfinance, sustainability refers to ongoing service delivery, making sure that services continue to be available to a growing number of clients over the long term.  Microfinance is neither relief nor charity as financial services must be ongoing and permanent, and charity is for those who cannot help themselves at that point in time.

Microfinance is a creative approach to development. Through the creative use of technology, you can donate funds to the working poor directly (as a group or an organization), choose a loan you wish to support and then designate funds in your portfolio for that specific loan.  Each loan acts as a revolving loan and has potential to impact many entrepreneurs. When the client pays money back to the bank, the donor is notified and the money is put back into the donor's account. These funds are now ready to be used to fund another loan.