There is an old adage that says if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Spend some time with Olive Wolimbwa of Buyobo, a town in Uganda, and you take it one step further: If you teach a woman to sell fish to the village up the road, she'll do more than eat—she will build a better life for herself, her family and her entire village.

Wolimbwa knows better than anyone the personal and social transformative power of skills and ingenuity used in a new way. She is the head of the Widow's Association in the village and is the on-the-ground organizer for the microfinance program developed by a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, the Women's Microfinance Initiative, and supported by the Cordes Foundation.

Microfinance is a form of social entrepreneurship, an emerging concept that promotes sustainable business solutions for key societal problems such as poverty, education and climate change. Wolimbwa has organized women in the village and has even helped them to create business plans and apply for microfinance loans. The loan amounts are small—$50 to $100, less than a meal out for an American family at many restaurants. But in Buyobo, they are enough to start a business.

When my wife Marty and I traveled to Uganda in October of 2008, Wolimbwa took us to meet a woman who used her loan to open a shop. We were the first outsiders to visit her business. Our group of observers included John Murray, a fellow Genworth executive; Margee Ensign, associate provost for international initiatives at the University of the Pacific, a 150-year-old liberal arts college based in Stockton, Calif.; and Jerry Hildebrand, founding director of the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Pacific.

The shop owner's business plan is simple: She travels all day to the city from her remote village, buys tee-shirts and carries them back to her store where she sells them at a profit. The people who come to her store are happy to pay the markup rather than making the long journey themselves.

Although she was illiterate—many of the women we met during our trip were—this retailer knew exactly what she spent and her profit margin on each sale. She also understood her customers. She recognized which shirts sold best; during the summer, when people seemed to prefer a different style, she was able to adjust her merchandise accordingly.

I was struck by the recognition that her process wasvery similar to that of a Macy's buyer who selects the retailer's spring line. Using her common sense, this woman in a remote village in Uganda was applying the lessons that we in America learn in business school. And like any energetic and successful American businesswoman, she was enjoying the fruits of her success, seeing her income triple—from roughly one dollar a day to three. With that extra money she is able to pay school fees for her children and afford "luxuries" such as a concrete floor in her small, one-room home.

Her loan was not charity; it was start-up capital. She has built a sustainable business, improved her life and helped her village, and she can be justifiably proud of her work and business acumen. It is a story we saw time and time again throughout the village—women's lives improved through their own ingenuity. And in stark contrast to the subprime lending crisis in the United States, loan repayment rates in Buyobo have remained at 100% since the inception of the program last year.

Some of the businesses were what one might call traditional enterprises, such as raising and selling chickens and vegetables, making clothing or running a general store. Others were more creative. For instance, one woman recognized that travelers passing through Buyobo had to depend on the hospitality of villagers for accommodations or meals, or else make do with sleeping in an abandoned shanty. So she opened a bed and breakfast of sorts where, for a small price, travelers could rest comfortably and enjoy a good meal.

The pride of ownership, the sense of accomplishment and the growing belief in themselves were clear everywhere we visited. It was certainly clear in the tee-shirt shop. As we left, the woman smiled and said, through Wolimbwa as our interpreter, "Thank you for making an investment in me. You won't be disappointed."

SEEKING NEW SOLUTIONS

When we sold AssetMark Investment Services to Genworth Financial in 2006, Marty and I established the Cordes Foundation with the goal of funding sustainable solutions for poverty reduction. We wanted to explore other alternatives to traditional charity that would harness the power of market-based approaches and allow us to make a real difference in people's lives.