Bangladeshi women count money for repayment to a microcredit bank at Dowtia village, near Dhaka. Once living hand to mouth, now the women earn an adequate amount to support their families by running small projects of cattle breeding or poultry farming with loans from BRAC, the biggest of a legion of non-government organisations that has pioneered microfinance as a means of helping the poor to help themselves. Picture taken on January 20, 2004. REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman NA/SH