microenterprises informal

In many developing countries, the majority of citizens make their living through microenterprises-informal, tiny businesses that barely yield enough to survive. Without financial services, most of these entrepreneurs find growth simply impossible. The Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), a nonprofit established in 1984, stepped into the gap by providing micro-loans ($50-$500) to the poorest of the poor entrepreneurs, through village banks that are administered by the people they serve. The FINCA program has been amazingly successful at breaking the vicious cycle of poverty for its clients. Check out their story on the Web at www.finca.org. Why has the FINCA approach worked so well? Do you think it would work in poor communities in the United States? Why or why not?