To bring down levels of HIV and increase women's independence, GAIA's Malawi Staff works with local experts in microfinance to create and manage GAIA's Microfinance program for village women. We initiated the program in the fall of 2006 in Malawi's rural Thyolo District-an area with a high incidence of food insecurity, malnutrition and HIV.

We provide training to Women Entrepreneurs including: how to create a business plan, simple accounting, and managing loan repayment. Initially, a Woman Entrepreneur receives a $70 loan. In the beginning, many women remark that they do not require $70 for their businesses. However, as their enterprises grow, they find themselves needing more seed capital and are grateful for further assistance. GAIA provides every woman in the program with on-going workshops covering a wide-range of topics including business management, HIV prevention and care, and gender relations.

Since the program's inception, our women entrepreneurs have embarked on diverse income-generating activities. The most popular small business is the sale of bananas. Additional items sold by our Entrepreneurs include pork, milk, fish, tomatoes, beans, rice, chicken, eggs, firewood, clothing, and other foodstuffs. Some women travel as far as 300 miles to transport their goods to market. If they are nursing, women take their babies along and spend two to four weeks living at the farmers' markets where they sell their wares.

88% of the original loan capital has been re-paid by our Women Entrepreneurs. We expect even higher re-payment rates as the women hone their business skills and activities. When loan groups reach 100% repayment, they receive new loans enabling them to expand and refine their small businesses.

These women are reinvesting in their families and communities, thereby stabilizing the local economy and increasing women's social status.The Microfinance program provides rural women with a means of economic empowerment, lessening their dependence on men, and thus reducing rates of HIV and increasing the well-being of families. Our Women Entrepreneurs are now able to afford highschool fees for their children, as well as clothing, the ability to pay for medical care and to purchase fertilizer.

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