It's Anti-Poverty week this week and seeing as it's Friday, and you are most likely taking some time to unwind/ relax/ do some weekend planning, spare a thought for the millions of women across the world who don't have that luxury. With their very livelihood on the line, these women need your help.

I've blogged about Good Return before, a not-for-profit organisation which enables women in underprivileged countries to start their own business and be able to provide for their families. This Anti-Poverty week, Good Return is focusing on education and raising enough money to send these women to training courses so that they can learn about business and making a living. And it works.

Just $100 will send them on a financial course and help them learn how to manage their business. Di Bowles from Good Return says: 

"Women helped through loans for their businesses, and given educational support, can afford to send their children to school, buy them school uniforms, make sure they have enough to eat and even potentially provide electricity so they can do their homework in the evenings"

Education has a powerful effect on a woman’s life. An extra year of primary school means that a girl may eventually earn 10% to 20% more.

Need proof? Good Return helped Mary Ann in the Philippines (pictured above). Because of a small microfinance loan and a training course that taught her how to budget, she’s now able to send her daughter to uni in Manila – the first in her family to go.

Or Bhok, the mother of two with a husband who works in another district in Nepal. She used a microfinance loan to buy a sewing machine and start a business. She saved to install a biogas system (a renewable energy system that turns animal manure into clean energy) in her home. It means that she spends less on firewood, breathes in less smoke while she is cooking – and as she jokingly said, spends less on manicures due to dirty hands!

Come on, help a sister out. All loans to Good Return are PAID BACK. So you give them money, and then get it back in a matter of months.

Try it. Feel good about doing something that will make a difference.

Click here to contribute.