t r u t h o u t | Programming Note
PBS Airtime: Friday, September 21, 2007, at 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)
A new approach to helping the world's poor: Is it working or just making the rich even richer? Next on NOW.
Microfinancing has been hailed as a breakthrough in combating global poverty by giving small loans to impoverished people in the hopes of transforming their lives. But one very profitable Mexican lending program is now under intense scrutiny. On Friday, September 21, at 8:30 p.m. (check local listings), NOW takes a close look at Compartamos bank, which started as a nonprofit organization lending small sums of money to poor indigenous Mexican women to help them start their own businesses. Today, it's a for-profit bank with more than 600,000 Mexican clients. Interviewing both grateful loan recipients and vocal critics - like Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer Mohammed Yunus - NOW investigates if Compartamos is truly serving the poor, or exploiting them.
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NOW Online will offer more information on the power and promise of microloans in developing countries, including a web-exclusive interview with billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
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