SEATTLE -  An informal brown bag lunch in Seattle has reached across the globe to the world’s poorest people.

KING

As little as $100 can help set up a business in a third-world country.

With microloans from $100 to $200, impoverished people can buy equipment to bake bread, grind corn meal and open restaurants.

"What's wonderful about microcredit is it’s empowering them to take care of their own lives, which they're capable of doing," said Bill Clapp of Global Partnerships.

It’s helped people like Martha Chay in Guatamala, who opened a snack shop and sent her two children to college.

Barbara Hernandez, once a Guatamalan garbage picker, got a loan for a sewing machine and now supports her family as a seamstress.

Virginia received a $258 loan from children in Seattle and opened a small beauty shop.

"I thank them so much for everything they've done for me,” she said. “It will make a huge different in my life."

Microcredit launched decades ago with small loans as seed money. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and in most cases they pay the loans back. Now Seattle is becoming a microcredit hot spot, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation entering the partnership.  

"They're entrepreneurs, they see entrepreneurship from the bottom, they get excited about making a difference that way," said Sam Daley-Harris of the Microcredit Summit.

Many Americans like to think big, but in this case small is better, with one micro loan at a time.