By Dr Malini Saba

When a woman finds her strength, everything around her begins to shift. Her home feels different. Her children walk taller. The community changes, slowly but surely.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: empowerment isn’t about giving handouts or sympathy. It’s about giving a woman the power to decide for herself how she lives, how she earns, and how she dreams. And once she does that, she doesn’t stop there. She passes it on.

That’s what I call the multiplier effect.

When Empowerment Turns into Movement

It still amazes me that, in 2025, we’re still talking about “closing gender gaps”. Women make up half the world, yet we still have to fight to be taken seriously in business, agriculture, science – you name it.

But here’s what’s true: when women earn, the world grows. Studies say that women reinvest almost 90% of what they make back into their families and communities. I’ve seen it. They don’t spend it on themselves; they send their daughters to school, they fix the roof, and they put food on the table.

That’s how real development happens. Not from top-down policies, but from the hands of a woman who decides to change her story.

Renuka: The Woman Who Changed Her Village

I met Renuka years ago in a small farming village in India. Through the Saba Family Foundation, we were running a livelihood programme for women. Renuka took a small loan, her first ever, to start a rice milling business. She had no fancy education, just grit and a quiet confidence that came alive once she got the chance.

Two years later, Renuka wasn’t just earning for her family. She was employing six other women in her village. Her daughter is now studying agricultural science, and her son runs free computer classes for local children.

When I went back to visit, Renuka said something I’ll never forget. She told me, “When I got that loan, I thought it would change my life. I didn’t know it would change everyone else’s too.”

That’s what empowerment looks like - it starts small, then spreads like sunlight.

Women Who Build Beyond Themselves

Over the years, I’ve met women who remind me why I do what I do.

There’s Chetna Gala Sinha from Maharashtra, who built Mann Deshi Mahila Bank to give rural women a place to save, borrow, and grow. Today, she’s helped more than half a million women become business owners.

Then there’s Rebecca Lolosoli in Kenya, a survivor who created Umoja Village, an all-women community that runs its own businesses and sends girls to school.

Or Sufiya Begum in Bangladesh, the woman who took a $27 microloan from the Grameen Bank and built a small bamboo stool business. That simple act sparked a movement for millions of women across the developing world.

And I can’t forget Maria Teresa Kumar, a Colombian-American who co-founded Voto Latino to give young women of colour a voice. Economic empowerment isn’t only about money. It’s about ownership, participation, and power.

Each of these women took what they had and built something larger than themselves. That’s real leadership.

A Story Close to My Heart

I think often of Lina, a young woman I mentored from Indonesia. She came to me with this dream of starting a small sustainable food venture. She was full of energy but had no funding, no plan, and no support system.

We worked together, refining her business idea, helping her connect with women farmers, and finding seed funding. Three years later, she runs a successful food company that employs over 80 women. Most of them had never earned a steady income before.

Lina told me recently that she’s now mentoring young girls in her community who want to start their own businesses. That made me smile. Because that’s how empowerment works; it travels from one woman’s heart to another.

What I’ve Learnt Along the Way

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that empowerment isn’t about charity - it’s about access.

Access to education, access to finance, access to people who believe in you.

Education opens the mind. Finance opens the door. Mentorship gives you the courage to walk through it.

Everywhere I go, I meet women who don’t want handouts; they just want someone to listen, someone to trust them with opportunity. And once they get that, they fly.

Looking Ahead

My work, through the Saba Family Foundation and beyond, has always been rooted in this belief: when you empower a woman, you strengthen the spine of a community.

It’s never just one story. There are hundreds of them, each connected, each multiplying the other’s impact.

I’ve seen empowerment turn into generational change. I’ve seen girls who once dropped out of school grow up to lead organisations. I’ve seen entire families break free from poverty because one woman dared to dream differently.

That’s what keeps me doing this work. That’s what keeps me hopeful.