We are in the process of establishing a microloan program.  We initially will be making about 20 loans of $250 each to disadvantaged women in a local village.  The money will be used to start home-based businesses including: goat raising, chicken farming, seamstress work, weaving, and the manufacturing of clay pots.  The loans will be for 4-1/2 years, with a repayment of about $6 per month.  All the loans will be made in one village where peer pressure will help to insure re-payment.  (There will be a village loan committee the is responsible for the group’s performance as a whole.  If someone does not pay, the committee must make up the difference.)  This type of program has been used successfully in many parts of the third world and is often the only way that these women can lift themselves out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.