Over a billion people have to live on $1 a day or less.

Families trying to survive in such extreme poverty must often go without the food they need -- and must make agonizing choices between adequately feeding their children or buying medicine when they are sick or sending them to school. A billion malnourished people -- mostly women and children -- are losing their health and lives, their potential for prosperity, and their hope for a better future.

At Freedom from Hunger, we've helped hundreds of thousands of the world's poorest women win life-saving victories over this crisis through an innovative integration of education and microfinance. Our Credit with Education program invests in the determination of a mother to feed her children, and equips her for success.

Through a combination of cash credit to build home-based businesses and vital health and nutrition education, women can buy more and better food, invest in their children's education, take control of their families' health, and help each other to have a greater influence in their communities.