Corazon Endonela lives with her husband and three children in Guadalupe, an urban area in the Philippine city of Makati. A visit to her house takes you through narrow alleys often flooded with murky water. There is no sewage system. The house is a simple structure of four walls and a dirt floor, with an elevated wooden floor for the sleeping quarters.

Corazon worked in a slipper factory earning 6,000 Filipino pesos (about $117 U.S.) per month—not nearly enough, even with her husband’s irregular employment, to support her family. So, Corazon decided to go into business for herself and started to manufacture her own slippers. She organized the area outside her house as a workshop for two or three contract workers. Her husband and three sons, ranging in age from 18 to 24, also helped in the production process when they were not in school.

Self-employment in the Philippines has become a common option for the poor and less educated who have difficulties finding gainful employment. To succeed one needs to have the entrepreneurial virtues of patience, persistence, courage, a good business sense, and a willingness to work hard—qualities that Corazon has in abundance. But how was she to acquire the necessary capital to purchase materials and get her business off the ground?

A loan of 5,000 pesos (less than $100 U.S.) helped to make Corazon’s self-employment possible. "Having more revolving capital available really makes a difference to my slipper business," she enthuses. If there is sufficient demand, she and her family can now produce 400 pairs of slippers per month, earning a gross income of 37,000 pesos.

Corazon received her loan from Tulay Sa Pag-unlad, Inc. (TSPI) Development Corporation, a Philippine micro-finance institution. In 2003, TSPI received a loan of 35 million Filipino pesos (then $650,000 U.S.) from Oikocredit, enabling it, in turn, to make microcredit loans available to Corazon and thousands of others like her.

Millions of poor around the world are benefiting from the success of microcredit. Of the world’s 6.3 billion people, 3 billion live on less than $2 per day, 1.2 billion on less than $1 per day. However, today, many are able to receive small loans to farm their land, develop small businesses, and market goods thanks to their ingenuity and hard work.

Oikocredit, founded in 1975, is today the largest private international provider of microcredit capital in the world, according to CGAP, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, a research arm of the World Bank. Known as the "bank of the unbankables," Oikocredit makes loans to the poor who do not have the assets nor collateral to fight poverty. With a current balance sheet of $310,000,000, Oikocredit devotes half of its credit portfolio to microcredit banks and half to cooperatives in 67 countries. Almost 480 organizations in poor communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are beneficiaries of its loan programs. With 12 regional offices around the world, Oikocredit works closely with its project partners in order to assist them in their fight to beat poverty as well as to repay their loans. Its low default rate of about 11 percent has made it possible for every single investor since Oikocredit’s inception to receive its full principal plus interest upon redemption. No one has lost a dollar from investing in Oikocredit.

Investment in Oikocredit is also an important way of enhancing our own security. Recent studies and discussions have pointed to global poverty as an important factor in fomenting violence and terrorism. Decreasing poverty around the world may help reduce terrorism and violent forms of political expression. Unfortunately, not enough has been done by international, national, and non-government organizations to eradicate poverty. By making loans available to the world’s poor, Oikocredit and other microcredit providers create more favorable conditions for justice and peace.

—T. Provance