An enterprising Chinese man pulls a bicycle cart packed high with bags of recyclable plastic containers in Shanghai July 25, 2002. The man sells each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic for 0.08 yuan ($.01) to a nearby depot. (Photo by Claro Cortes IV/Reuters)

The shoemaker in Turkey, the potato seller in Vietnam, and the weaver in Bolivia are among the billions of low-income entrepreneurs who make the world go round. They are also the type of people who can benefit significantly from microfinance. Every year, the Consultative Group To Assist The Poor (or CGAP) hosts a photo contest asking entrants to submit photos based around the idea of microfinance.The purpose of the contest is to give amateur and professional photographers a chance to show the different ways that poor households manage their financial lives and make their lives better through financial inclusion. Photo: South Asia Regional Winner – “Bricks Worker”, Bangladesh. A private enterprise worker is working at a brick field. These small businesses are creating new job opportunities for many poor people. (Photo by Moksumul Haque)

California “weed nun” Christine Meeusen, 57, (R), and India Delgado, who goes by the name Sister Eevee, smoke a joint at Sisters of the Valley near Merced, California, April 18, 2017. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

A Muslim worshipper attends a mass prayer against COVID-19, the new coronavirus, in Dakar on March 4, 2020, after two cases were confirmed in Senegal in the previous days. Across the world, 3,155 people have died from the virus. More than 92,723 have been infected in 78 countries and territories, according to AFP's latest toll based on official sources at 1700 GMT on March 3, 2020. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

A man helps a woman through a flooded neighbourhood in the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth, in Pemba, Mozambique, April 28, 2019. (Photo by Mike Hutchings/Reuters)

Wearing a devil mask, a reveler dances through the streets during the “Diablada de Pillaro”, or the Devils of Pillaro festival, to send out the old year and bring in the new, in the Andean town of Pillaro, Ecuador, January 1, 2024. (Photo by Carlos Noriega/AP Photo)

Onlookers gather around a struggling beached whale in the Yoff neighborhood of Dakar, Senegal Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Residents worked Wednesday morning to save some of the more than 80 whales that were stranded on the beach Tuesday night. This whale was successfully towed out to sea by a fishing boat, though at least 20 others lay dead on the beach by midday Wednesday. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

Female members of the Hammer tribe from the village of Turmi, situated in southern Ethiopia near the Kenyan border, dance as part of a ritual called the “bull jumping ceremony” that takes place during the passage of a young boy to adulthood, in Turmi, Ethiopia, 25 September 2019. (Photo by Stéphanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE)