Instead of hand-outs, these women get hand-ups.

Preeti Gupta from India is living proof of how a small financial boost could change a rural womans business and life in a big way.

When rural women entrepreneurs learn business management skills, they increase their earnings and improve their family’s lot.

For the past 10 years, 40-year-old Dayang Sakibas has been working around the clock just to get by. The mother of five earned only RM20 a day from her food stall despite toiling from dawn to dusk.