Most families are capable of taking care of themselves if they have reasonable access to education, resources and job opportunities. Most of the agencies mentioned above provide economic development assistance as well as emergency relief, to allow people to become self-reliant. For many families around the world caught in the backwash of war, natural disaster, or chronic poverty, a basic need is income-producing activity. Many persons have marketable handcraft skills, and need only the chance to sell their products in order to become self-supporting. In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank was founded in 1976 by an economics professor Muhammed Yunus who was concerned about the exploitation of poor women in a male-dominated Muslim culture.
Borrowers pay interest rates comparable to local commercial bank rates.
As micro-businesses grow, their owners are able to earn a better living, providing improved nutrition, housing, education and clothing for their families. Doing justice, however, reflects a lifestyle that acknowledges God's ownership of all creation and exercises social, economic, and political power for the benefit of all people, and, in fact, all creation. If you refuse to listen to the cry of the poor, your own cry for help will not be heard. Be generous and share your food with the poor. You will be blessed for it.