English - Freedom from Hunger

PaInTIng a PICTuRe
Hope for a new generation
In order to get a more complete picture of the extent to which these microfinance clients can envision a
better future for themselves and their families, it helps to understand their perceptions of their own lives
and their hopes for their children, relative to the lives and hopes of their own parents. Across the board,
there are three aspects of these program members’ lives that are unambiguously better than a generation
earlier.
First, a majority of the members of all nine programs cited the availability of business loans or the
opportunity for women to work or contribute financially to the family’s income as an advantage over the
opportunities presented to their own parents (especially those available to their mothers).
Asseta, from Burkina Faso, is 40 years old and married with seven children. Her husband is a polygamist and
she shares her household with eight of her husband’s children from his other spouse. She notes that women
now can make important financial decisions, a fact that wasn’t true of her parents’ and previous generations. Her
mother didn’t know how to borrow money or even know that it was an option. Health too has changed—“Now
a woman can decide to bring her sick child to the hospital. Before, it was always the man who took care of the
child.” She enjoys a greater responsibility in managing the family income and has more of a chance to work for
money herself. Her voice is now heard in the community and she says that previously, women always submitted to
their husbands concerning important decisions.
Second, participants in all countries referred to the availability of some type of education as a factor in
their improved quality of life. Some were more specific, identifying the non-formal education sessions
associated with their loans or savings program, such as health education, as the basis for their claim about
life improvements. The vast majority, however, did not relate their comments about education to any
particular source or type of class.
Third, in almost every program, participants cited improved access to health care in general, or access to
doctors, hospitals and/or medicines specifically, as a source of improvement over the lives of their parents.
In most of the programs studied here, the overall impression of how members of the current generation
are faring relative to their own parents is mixed (with the possible exception of participants in India and
Bolivia, who claim to be almost universally better off than their parents, both with respect to general
quality-of-life issues and specifically when it comes to diet). For program members in programs around
the globe—from Peru and Ecuador to Burkina Faso and Mali—the impression that life has improved is
tempered by program members’ claims that the decrease in rainfall and/or the rise in prices for necessities
(mainly food) have made life significantly more difficult in many respects.
Consequently, we can think of individuals as entering these programs needing easier or cheaper access to
better food, but with great potential to achieve significant life improvements, given their enthusiasm for
business loans and the ability to work, along with the desire to learn.
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