In 1976, while walking through the village of Jobra in Bangladesh, economics professor Muhammad Yunus encountered a woman named Sophia Begum weaving bamboo stools. Despite her skill and hard work, she earned barely two cents per day. The reason was simple yet devastating: she lacked the twenty cents needed to buy bamboo from the market. Instead, she borrowed from local moneylenders who charged predatory interest rates, so that her entire profit went toward servicing debt. She was trapped in a cycle of poverty, not because she lacked ability or work ethic, but because she lacked access to affordable credit.