Dr. Muhammad Yunus has spent his entire life using economics and business
principles to help those less fortunate. On Monday night, the Nobel Peace Prize announced he will be using York College as
the center of his newest project to help not only the poor of his native Bangladesh but also the college's budding students.
Yunus and York officials said they will be offering a special scholarship to allow children
of members of the Grameen Bank, which he founded in 1983, to study in America at York. In addition, Yunus said the plan would
allow York students to study in Bangladesh for a semester.
"This
is a significant announcement because all issues I've been raising are part of the idea that I've been teaching,"
he said. "When you give someone a little to start with, they grow and thrive."
Dr. Marcia Keizs, York's
president, praised Yunus for choosing York as the destination for his students and offering his country as a learning center
for hers.
"We believe this kind of exchange will provide our students with a one of a kind learning opportunity,"
she said.
see minute 5 of David Frost Interview - how the real microcredit franchise achieves such high payback
rates making it the securest bank in the 21st C world
Revolutionary Undergraduate Microfinance
Course
ATLANTA (February 14, 2008) – This semester at Oglethorpe University 20 students are enrolled in Special Topics in Economics: Seminar
on Microfinance and Social Investing. This is the only undergraduate course on Microfinance being offered in the country.
The class includes international students and students from Agnes Scott College and Emory University.
As a part of the course, leaders in Microfinance come to Oglethorpe and participate in interactive seminars that are free
and open to the public. The seminars examine the role that microfinance, as popularized by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mohammad
Yunus, has played in lifting millions out of poverty.
The course is a result of a unique collaboration
between Atlanta-based Gray Matters Capital and Oglethorpe University. In addition to gaining insights into the causes and
scope of poverty, students will analyze underlying economic theories related to growth and development. Additionally, students
will have an opportunity to interact with micro-lenders and micro-enterprises in the Atlanta area and develop a service learning
project. The students' final project requires them to propose how they would invest $5 million in a microfinance institution
or social enterprise.
Upcoming seminars include:
- Thursday, February 21, 2008
Donna Rohling:
The Role of the Investor, Earl Dolive Theater, Philip Weltner Library, Oglethorpe University, 4:30 p.m.
Donna Rohling
is on the program committee of the Grameen Foundation and is a member of Women Advancing Microfinance.
Astrid Pregel, president of Feminomics, Inc., and Jody Stephenson '03, CPA for the Children of the Nation-USA,
will present.
- Thursday, March 6, 2008
Joseph J. Iarocci: Health and Microfinance, Lupton Auditorium,
Lupton Hall, Oglethorpe University, 4:30 p.m.
Joseph J. Iarocci is the senior vice president and finance and chief
financial officer for CARE.
- Thursday, March 13, 2008
Panel: Education and Microfinance – Past
and Future, Earl Dolive Theater, Philip Weltner Library, Oglethorpe University, 4:30 p.m.
Robert A. Pattillo, founder
of the Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund, Genia Topple, director at Rockdale Foundation, and Dr. Shoumi Mustafa, post-doctoral
researcher at The Ohio State University, will present.
- Thursday, March 27, 2008
Panel: Microfinance
and Microenterprise in the U.S., Lupton Auditorium, Lupton Hall, Oglethorpe University, 4:30 p.m.
Grace Fricks,
president and CEO of Appalachian Community Enterprises, Patricia Harris, executive director and CEO of The EDGE Connection
(Empowering and Developing Georgia's Entrepreneurs), and Miguel Granier, president of Microcapital Consulting, will present.
- Thursday, April 10, 2008
Robert A. Pattillo: The Dark Side of Microfinance, Earl Dolive Theater, Philip
Weltner Library, Oglethorpe University, 4:30 p.m.
Robert A. Pattillo is the founder of the Gray Ghost Microfinance
Fund.
.UAE: Future News April. The 'banker to the poor' who inspired micro-finance throughout the developing world and even industrialised
nations is to address a special Guru Day as part of the Islamic finance industry’s leading global event.
Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi banker and economist, will be outlining the success achieved in fighting poverty
by helping people to join together to help themselves at the annual International Islamic Finance Forum which takes place
this year at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, from 13-17 April 2008.
Yunus is the Founder and
Managing Director of Grameen Bank (Village Bank), built on the conviction that poor people can be both reliable borrowers
and avid entrepreneurs. The Grameen Bank has issued more than US$5.1 billion to 5.3 million borrowers, maintaining a repayment
rate of 99%.
In establishing the idea, Yunus and his colleagues overcame everything from violent
radical leftists to conservative clerics who told women they would be denied a Muslim burial if they borrowed money from the
bank.
In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of
“their efforts to create economic and social development from below."
Yunus, born
into a Muslim family, became involved with poverty reduction in Bangladesh after observing that very small loans could make
a disproportionate difference to a poor person. In one village he saw how women who made bamboo furniture had to take
out usurious loans to buy the bamboo and then pay their profits to the moneylenders. His first loan – for US$27 out
of his own pocket - was made to 42 women in the village.
“We are absolutely delighted Yunus
has agreed to address the International Islamic Finance Forum (IIFF),” said Conference Manager for the Islamic
Finance Forum Swati Taneja. “While the concept of providing credit to the poor as a tool of poverty reduction
is not unique, Yunus realised that the creation of an institution was needed to lend to those who had nothing. His interpretations
go to the very heart of Islamic belief in terms of finance.
“During a special Guru Day,
Yunus will not only be telling us about micro-credit and how the Grameen Bank evolved but also about the role of women, how
corporations and businesses can help the poor as well as providing some real life examples of social businesses.”
.
As part of the International Youth Foundation’s Tsunami Reconstruction Initiative, supported by Nokia, more than 4,400 young people are being given access not only to job placement and life skills training, but also
to small start-up loans and microfinance.
The decision to offer loans through the programme is part of a growing recognition
of the power of microfinance as a tool that helps not only women entrepreneurs or small farmers to improve their lives, but
also young people.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) generally use the group-lending methodology pioneered by Muhammad
Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and economist, to loan extremely small amounts of money to individuals living in difficult economic
circumstances.
JEDDAH, 26 February 2008 — The poor are not responsible for poverty;
it’s the society that imposes poverty on them. It never gave them the space to grow, said Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad
Yunus while delivering a lecture at the Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) here yesterday.
Disarming honesty and genuineness
of this modest and humane man quite literally brought tears to the eyes of many Saudi businessmen. His remarks were hugely
applauded and he received a standing ovation at the end of his address, the only one on whom this honor has been bestowed
in nine years of the JEF’s history. All through his address he kept the audience spellbound. Following the conclusion
of his speech, groups of women ran toward the stage to meet with this visionary individual and encircled him as if he was
some Hollywood star.
“If anyone has to be blamed for the menace of poverty, it’s the society and it’s
unfair economic systems that should be blamed for poverty, not poor people. There is nothing wrong with the poor,” he
said. “They’re as good as anybody else. They’re as active as anybody else. They’re as creative as
anybody else. They’re as smart as anybody else. Poverty is not created by poor people, it is created by society,”
he said.
He also made it loud and clear that poverty is a global phenomenon, not restricted to the Third World in
a rebuttal to Alastair Stewart, the moderator, who said that he has done a very good job to elevate poverty in the Third World.
Yunus,
a practical visionary, talked about how social entrepreneurship and technical expertise can, together, change the world. He
called upon businessmen and other social organizations to help “in creating a world where there are no poor and poverty
becomes a thing of the past.”
“We should keep poverty in a museum for the coming generation to come
and see,” he said. Yunus is the pioneer of microcredit, the process of using collateral-free loans of small amounts
to help millions of families out of poverty. The Bangladeshi economist started the bank by lending $27 to 42 people to help
them free themselves from “loan sharks.”
“And it created an enormous reaction. They were so happy.
Looking at them later on, I thought: ‘if you can make so many people so happy with such a small amount of money, why
shouldn’t you do more of it?’ So I went to the bank. I thought this was such a simple solution; he would be excited
to do that. He said ‘no. Banks cannot lend money to the poor people.’ I said: ‘This is such small money,
you’ll not miss this money.’ He said: ‘No, it’s not a question of the amount of money, it’s
the principle: Banks cannot lend money to poor people.’”
“I offered my personal guarantee and
started signing guarantee papers to facilitate loans to the poor,” he said. “In 1983 I founded Grameen Bank, which
now operates in nearly 80,000 rural Bangladeshi villages. Today we have 7.3 million borrowers, 97 percent of the bank’s
clients are women.”
“Rich people own conventional banks, but this bank is fully owned by its clients
and has been a model for microfinance institutions around the world. They elect members for the board of directors who in
turn formulate and execute policies for their socio-economic empowerment,” he said.
In 2006, Yunus was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work.
“Sixty-seven percent of our borrowers who have been with us
for about five years, are now above the poverty line,” he said.
Speaking about the functioning of the bank,
he said: “I studied the operation of conventional banks and decided to do the opposite in lending money to the poor.
The conventional banks follow the dictum of: the more you have the more you get. But I follow the principle: the less you
have the highest priority you get in receiving the loan.”
“They ask for collateral and guarantee. The
Grameen bank provides loans without collateral, guarantees and legal hassles,” he said.
He said the bank
encourages borrowers to send their children to school, which has borne fruit. “A 100 percent of our borrowers’
children are in school now. For higher studies we provide educational loans too.”
He added that King Saud
University in Riyadh has offered 50 scholarships to Bangladeshi students to come here and study. In a very passionate and
emotional tone, Yunus talked about providing loans to beggars and improving their lives and prompting them to take up proper
jobs. “If we granted them a loan they would still be beggars. So, two years ago we decided to give some merchandise
to beggars and told them to sell the small items while they go begging,” he said, adding that some of his colleagues
were of the opinion that beggars will not change. “I told them to keep patience. Because it takes time to restructure
a business, to close the begging division, and to strengthen the sales division. And today 10,000 beggars have already stopped
begging and become salesman.”
This shows Yunus is a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical
action for the benefit of poor. Responding to a question from the audience about what type of resistance he faced starting
the bank that lends money to women, Yunus said: “The first one, the most strong one to begin with, was from men. Men
opposed the idea because we were offering loans to women. Then came religious opposition. Saying that giving loans to women
is not accepted. I said that’s funny, because I thought religion always supported women being in business and so on,
I gave examples, we brought all the historical evidence from Islamic history where women were in business and Muslim women
were successfully doing business and so on. I told them if you are a good Muslim find a businesswoman to marry.”
“And
we also had opposition from money lenders, we had opposition from political parties because the extreme left, the ultra left,
thought this is capitalism coming into the country and stopping the whole socialist movement within the country, and that
this is an American conspiracy planted in Bangladesh to get poor people out of the attention of socialist movements. And the
conservatives thinking that this is a new way of organizing poor people, that this was a communist ploy to get ready for a
bigger movement, taking over the power of the country, and so on.”
Yunus, pictured, is to headline the International Islamic Finance
Forum (IIFF) with a full-day session explaining his success in alleviating poverty through microfinance.
Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus on Sunday delivered the keynote speech at the International
Islamic Finance Forum being held in Dubai, becoming the first Nobel Laureate to address the burgeoning finance sector.
Yunus, who won the Nobel Prize in 2006, is headlining the opening of the forum with a special-day session on the role
of Islamic finance and mircofinance.
"It is the first timea a Nobel Laureate has presented a keynote speech
at an Islamic finance forum," said Rushdi Siddiqui, global director of Dow Jones Islamic Indexes in introducing Yunus.
"[He will address] the question of questions facing many in the industry - how is CSR social responsibility
defined by Islamic banks? Islamic finance today is Sharia-compliant but to make it Sharia-based will be the main challenge."
Yunus first became involved with poverty reduction in Bangladesh after observing that very small loans could make
a critical difference to a poor person. In 2006, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, together with Grameen Bank, the bank
he founded and is Managing Director of.
He is headlining the IIFF, which runs in Dubai from April 13-17, and is
being held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United
Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.
In his first address, Yunus said the consequences of the turmoil in credit markets
represented an opportunity for the global finance sector to consider its current rules and regulation.
"It
is a good time to reflect on what a bank is and does," said Yunus, speaking to a packed-audience of delegates in Dubai.
"If I were to ask for a billion dollars for a good global cause, there would be a lot of uproar - but a trillion
dollars down the drain, everyone off still playing golf, and not a word spoken."
He also advised corporations
and business in general to contribute more of their CSR funds to 'social businesses', non-profit driven businesses
for the good of society,"Usually most businesses have someone in charge of CSR, who sponsors a cricket match or exhibition,"
said Yunus. "But if you create a social business out of CSR, then everyone can benefit."
Yunus will be
addressing delegates later in the day in a special round-table on Islamic microfinance and more methods on how corporations
and business can help the poor.
