She's 22 years old. She's beautiful. She's a hard worker. She's an excellent cook. She comes from a great family. She's single. What young man in Karnal, India wouldn't want her to be his wife? The answer: not one. Polio, a crippling disease that has been eradicated from most of the world, claimed Monica when she was a baby, making her legs useless. She has never walked.

It's the same the world over. To survive, everyone needs some capital, whether it be financial, educational or social. Like so many others in Africa, Kenyans Beatrice Kimanya and her husband, Peter, had very little of any kind of capital. They owned a small plot of land on which they grew vegetables six months out of the year, but it netted them only $13 each month. Neither had any marketable skills or the benefit of an education past primary school. They, along with their five children, were imprisoned in poverty. The family often ate just one simple meal a day. Beatrice and Peter were especially disheartened that they could not afford the nominal fees to send their oldest son, Hillary, to secondary school (primary school is free in Kenya).