ACCION International is a private, nonprofit organization
with the mission of giving people the financial
tools they need — microenterprise loans,
business training, and other financial services — to
work their way out of poverty. A world pioneer
in microfinance, ACCION was founded in 1961 and
issued the first microloan in 1973 in Brazil.
Today, ACCION's 26 partner institutions are providing
loans as low as $100 to poor women and men entrepreneurs
in 18 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean
and sub-Saharan Africa, and in more than 30 U.S.
cities and towns.
"In 2003, ACCION reached an important milestone:
giving more than one million microentrepreneurs the
tools they need to work their way out of poverty.
But there is so much more work to be done. The Year
of Microcredit will bring visibility to microfinance's
poverty alleviation capacity, so we can expand financial
services faster, more efficiently, and more sustainably
than ever before to reach even more self-employed
poor. We strongly support the Year and its initiatives."
--María Otero, President & CEO, ACCION
International
