SHAKTI is the Bengali word for strength and power. Shakti Foundation for Disadvantaged Women gives the underprivileged women of Bangladesh the hope of strength and power and the means to translate them into reality. Shakti Foundation was founded in 1992 by Humaira Islam, PhD (the first woman CEO to start an urban credit program in Bangladesh) and a group of men and women with a vision for change. A vision to bring qualitative changes in the lives of women living below the poverty line, a vision to make these women independent, socially active, self-sufficient entrepreneurs. Shakti's mission is to turn this vision into reality. True empowerment of women is the ability to have the freedom of choice for a quantitative life for herself and her family. Through its various programs like Microfinance, Health, Women in Development (WID), etc Shakti Foundation is working at all levels to help women fight poverty and is helping them evolve, thus contributing to a global shift towards gender equality. Shakti Foundation provides access to credit and savings facilities for women living in urban slums. Shakti started its journey in the slums of Dhaka in 1992 and it has come a long way since then, and now the organization has coverage in almost all of the districts in Bangladesh.