In this November 28, 1966 file photo, one of the 10 beagles involved in the first test of the Veterans Administration Hospital in East Orange, N.J. smokes a cigarette through a machine linked to its windpipe by a plastic tube to test any link between smoking and emphysema. (Photo by AP Photo)

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)

Revellers chat on Havana's Malecon seafront before performing at a carnival parade, Cuba, August 12, 2016. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

A photograph of Cuba's former President Fidel Castro decorates a wall inside a state-run market in Havana, March 8, 2016. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Palestinians stand near a damaged vehicle, near the site where a number of Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid, in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 11, 2025. (Photo by Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)

A mannequin stands in a textile factory in Madrid, Spain May 19, 2014. (Photo by Andrea Comas/Reuters)

A woman carries an umbrella as she walks along a street during snowfall in the Iranian capital Tehran, on February 12, 2023. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

A young Free Syrian Army fighter holds a rifle in Haresta neighbourhood of Damascus January 16, 2013. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)