One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, by Katie Smith Milway, is a children’s book that teaches an important lesson to anyone interested in the seemingly gargantuan task of eradicating poverty. The book ingeniously uses the story of Kojo, a young boy in Ghana, to teach the concept of microfinance. Microfinance is an innovative concept of providing small loans to poor people who can’t qualify for loans from large banks so that they can use the funds to start their own businesses. In One Hen, Kojo is given a small loan by the people in his village, which he uses to buy one hen so that he and his widowed mother will have eggs to eat. An enterprising young man, he begins to sell the extra eggs and uses the profits to pay his school fees. He buys more hens and soon has a thriving business which allows him to take care of himself and his mother and to hire others in his village to help take care of the hens. Using the money from his eggs to finish school, Kojo is able to obtain a bigger loan from a bank with his small poultry business as collateral. With the bank loan, Kojo becomes a successful poultry farmer who loans money to others so that they too can start small businesses.

One Hen is based on the true story of Ghanaian businessman Kwabena Darko. The beneficiary of small loans which allowed him to begin a poultry farm and attend college, Mr. Darko is the founder and CEO of Darko Farms, the largest poultry farm in Ghana. A minister and devout Christian, Mr. Darko has incorporated the principle of “love thy neighbor” into his business model. Never forgetting the difference that small loans made in his own quest for success, Mr. Darko founded Sinapi Aba Trust, which means Mustard Seed. Sinapi Aba provides small loans to poor Ghanaians so that they too, can start their own businesses. In 2006 Sinapi Aba provided loans to 50,000 Ghanaians who used the money to start businesses such as selling fruit, sewing clothes, transporting goods and raising livestock. These loans helped Sinapi Aba’s clients – 90% of whom are women – to feed, clothe and educate their families. Sinapi Aba has become a successful microfinance organization which, similar to other microfinance groups, has a 97% repayment rate – a rate that would be envied by many large commercial banks. Beautifully illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes, One Hen also includes a discussion of how the reader can become part of the microfinance movement.

While ending poverty in Africa and the developing world is a large task which requires many approaches, One Hen teaches children and adults alike that a little bit of well-thought-out generosity can make a huge difference in someone’s life. As the saying goes, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for the rest of his life.” To read all about it, purchase your copy here.