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first to be laid off in the large state enterprises and the economic transition to a free marketplace. And they are left with fewer choices in terms of job opportunities. Ironically, women represent the majority of college graduates and possess skills that are vital to their and their nation’s economic prosperity. Similarly, the new democracy needs the talents of its women in political decision-making. Less than 3% of women are serving in the legislature and less than 1% in government administration. Yet, the traditional interests of women, family, health care, education, social services, etc., — should suggest the need for significantly greater political involvement. There is a direct correlation between the welfare of fam ilies and the functioning of government — between the quality of lives and political participation. The goals for a better life for all the Ukrainian peo ple cannot be reached without the full involvement of women. Too often the issues the UNWLA works on — issues from health care to education, from credit to jobs — are described as “soft” or “women’s issues”, but they are really the urgent concerns of society — at once dif ficult to solve and critical. A vital democratic society and economic prosperity in Ukraine requires a recognition that investment in women is one of the soundest investments a nation can make in the effort to stimulate development. So many NGO’s, like the UNWLA, are working to improve the status of women. Associations are forming in great numbers. Thankfully, as in many other places, women in Ukraine are coming together to address key issues they know need to be addressed. NGO’s are help ing to build the civil society. NGO’s are indentifying and supporting emerging women’s leadership, providing training and mentoring, providing for the development of democratic values and institutions, contributing to social programs that focus on the special needs of children and the elderly, creating access to credit and development of small businesses or microenterprises. I want to underscore microcredit, as an example of one kind of investment that needs to be made. We need greater efforts to open the doors of banks, other finan cial institutions and special funds to enable women to become responsible borrowers and to contribute to transforming their lives and those of their families. It’s called microcredit, but its impact on people is gigantic. It is a key element in creating and providing economic opportunity. Having the privilege to travel with the First Lady, I have seen first hand what that means in practice. I remember very well the stop that we made in Ahmedabad, India, a textile center. On the edge of town is a women’s bank, founded by a disciple of Gandhi, named Ela Bhatt. The bank has one room. The teller’s counter is an old kitchen table. Bank clerks record all the transactions by hand, on yellow sheets of paper bound in volumes that look like worn-out telephone books. We were there for only a few hours. But in that time we met women who had walked 12 to 15 hours from remote villages to take out their small loans — some as small as $1 — to invest in dairy cows, or plows, or goods they could sell at market. Women run the bank. Only women are allowed to make deposits and borrow money. And today this bank has assets of more than $43 million. Its loan repayment rate, which would be the envy of most commercial banks, is nearly 100 percent. It has 60,000 members — all women, many of whom are among the poorest. Against enormous political, social and economic odds, these women have joined together in SEWA, a trade union and cooperative, that provides them with job training, microcredit and mutual support. One after another, these women who had gathered together in a tent behind the small building with their bank, stood up to tell Mrs. Clinton their stories. Women told her what being part of SEWA and taking out these small loans had meant to them and their families. Their lives had been transformed. They had acquired authority over themselves to an extent that they had never dreamed possible. And as a result of their cooperation through SEWA, they were beginning to influence local govern ments, police, and commerce all because they had a contribution to make and had been given the tools of opportunity needed to make that contribution. Whether SEWA in India, Garmeen Bank in Bangla desh, FINCA in Latin America, or programs in the Uni ted States, microcredit has made critical contributions to economic improvement. I remember another visit of the First Lady’s to Santiago, Chile, where a woman told her how thrilled she was to be able to buy a sewing machine through a small loan. She said the felt like a bird who was let out of its cage. She could now expand her business significantly and become much more productive. Microcredit recognizes the essential role women play in development. As the First Lady said when she spoke at the forum on microcredit in Beijing: “Give a woman a seed and she will plant it, she will water it and nurture it and then reap it, share its fruits, and finally she will replant it. In this way, step by step, the world’s women — often the poorest — are leading their families, their communities and their contries to a better future.” When you help women to sow in Ukraine, their fam ilies, their community and their country all reap. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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