Africa small business 2012 5 31

Gladys Josephat, 35, poses with her children in her small shop that she got from a micro finance loan run outside Lilongwe on July 14, 2011. Malawi's microfinance lenders are giving would-be business owners access to capital in a country where 81 percent of people do not have a bank account. The system is a success for a country where frustrations at government erupted into deadly protests on July 20 and 21, leaving 19 dead in one of the world's poorest nations. AFP PHOTO /