Natalie Portman Tries to Empower World's Women
Actress works to get loans for world's poorest women.
April 29, 2007 — -- The "Star Wars" queen is now on a new mission, working with Finca a microfinance organization that delivers life-changing loans to the world's poorest women.
Natalie Portman: If a woman can't tell her child, "I can feed you tomorrow, I can pay for your school," then where do they go? What do they do? What do they choose?
It's really trying to reach the poorest of the poor and offering banking services to them, in that they have the access to get capital for loans. They can get insurance. They can get access to things that we don't even question having access to
You meet these women who are younger than I am, who are 20, 22, who have four kids. And they used to have to work in a factory because that was the only job available in town, for minimum wage, in horrible conditions, and be away from their children all day. And then they're able to get a loan and start their own business out of their own house and be with their children, and make more money than they were before, and spend time with their families. And it really, it changes the whole system.
