The members of WGN understand the importance of building support networks on a local level to assist them in their day-to-day affairs and are actively involved in their Branch activities.  However, as the world becomes flatter and more accessible through travel, greater telecommunications and economic necessity, WGN is on the forefront in extending its talents and desire to get to know and support other women globally.

Through its Global Business Partners program, sister WGN branches throughout the world are being linked, creating support networks that connect women and inspire them to achieve their full potential.  In effect, a WGN branch and their members adopt and become partners to women in villages in the developing world (Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia, Honduras and Mexico), raising awareness and encouraging their own communities to share their resources in a way that supports empowerment.

Through member donations, WGN members invest in microfinance programs that make small loans to women-owned businesses in underdeveloped countries.  It has been observed that giving women the control and the responsibility of small loans raises their socio-economic status, which is seen as a positive change to many of the current relationships of gender and class. Loans to women tend to more often benefit the whole family as they allow mothers to feed, clothe and educate their children.  WGN has researched some excellent organizations and its Branches have chosen to partner with sister cities through a number of different microfinance organizations on the ground working with villages all around the globe.  WGN hopes to create true partnerships where we can celebrate the successes of women all around the world.  If you would like to invest in a Global Business Partner, please contact GBP@wgn-global.com.

Quick Facts About Global Poverty and Microfinance:

• 2.8 billion people worldwide live in poverty, defined as living on less than $2 a day.
• Poverty directly contributes to a myriad of other global problems:  chronic malnutrition, overpopulation, illiteracy, crime, the spread of HIV/AIDS, child abuse, environmental degradation, illegal immigration and terrorism.
• 41.6 million of the world’s poorest families are presently reached by microfinance.
• Women make up 79% of the 41.6 million microfinance borrowers.
• Nearly 30% of microfinance borrowers will leave poverty after three years.
• The United Nations, an ardent supporter of microfinance made its number one Millennium Goal to halve poverty by 2015.

Awoke at 4am with my new "friend" the rooster who did not stop from then on. Staring at the "shower," it’s really more of a faucet over the floor. Since I had little hot water in Zanzibar, I'm wary. Sure enough cold again, thank God it’s not the dead of winter. We meet for breakfast, eggs, toast and fruit. We ordered lunch before we left as it takes between 1 and 2 hours to prepare. Then 15 of us piled into the van to head to the first village.

Winding down dirt roads that are really just massive potholes, through the millions of banana trees, the streets are full of people, it’s a national holiday today, something like Labor Day. Read More...

The WGN Global Immersion Trips give our members the chance to travel to meet their Global Business Partners and to actively work with them as they grow their businesses.

These trips have two goals: to promote understanding of different cultures aimed at building respectful collaborative relationships across the globe; and to provide education for grassroots women around the world as a means of promoting women’s leadership and community development.