With an outreach of over 300,000 members across 11 states, SKS Microfinance has been successfully providing financial services to the poor throughout India since 1998. Despite this achievement, SKS recognizes that traditional microfinance has often not been able to reach the poorest of the poor across the world. These poorest of the poor do not fit within the current structure of microfinance because potential members lack stable incomes; they have no job prospects, suffer from health-related issues, are uneducated, and/or are starving and in need of a reliable food supply.

SKS Assist* is a new program aimed at empowering the destitute -- the segment of society that has traditionally been left out of the microfinance sphere. SKS Assist aims to combine livelihood support and financial services to enable the poorest of the poor to create and foster businesses that will enable them to become traditional SKS Microfinance members � and create sustainable change in their lives. The program involves three phases: meeting basic needs, skills training and starting an income-generating activity.