Small loan grants have proven to be effective in helping Chinese women shake off poverty, whose number fell from 250 million in 1978 to 26.1 million in 2004, said sources with a national meeting on advancing women's poverty eradication.

Women's federations in 28 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have launched the small-sum loan services to help more women start up money-making ventures and become prosperous, the source said.

East China's Anhui Province, for instance, has granted small loans totaling 2.51 billion yuan (about US$310 million) to 2.6 million women in the province in the past decade who have earned 1.16 billion yuan (US$143 million) in economic benefits.

The women's federation in Chifeng, a city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has made active efforts to attract overseas funds as the source of small loans.

By August this year, Chifeng Women's Federation amassed funds totaling6.34 million yuan (US$782,716) from banks, international organizations and foreign governments.

A total of 42,300 women in Chifeng City have been granted small loans totaling 39.75 million yuan (US$4.9 million), of which 99.97 percent have been paid back upon maturity.

Taking the country as a whole, the women living in abject poverty fell from 250 million in 1978 to 26.1 million in 2004 with poverty rate plunging from 30 percent to 2.8 percent, said Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and also chairwoman of the All-China Women Federation.

Gu said that improving skills of the women will be a strategic measure to stimulate poverty eradication in the future.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2005)