Who is Mohammed Yunus

Mohammed Yunus is founder of the Grameen Bank and introduced the world to the concept of micro-credits.

As an economist with an enterpreneurial background, he got started during a famine in Bangladesh. He talked to a women that was selling bamboo stools she made by herself and found that she could make good business - if only she'd not be dependant on loan-sharks who would charge up to 300% interest.

He found this to be a modern form of slavery and just made a small experiment: he gave some very small credits (about $20) to poor women - without charging them loan-shark interest rates. He found that this way they could better their living situations and then approached several bank managers and talked to them. They laughed at his idea of lending money to the poor, so he organized it himself. And out of that simple idea, one of the greatest models of sustainable poverty eradication has evolved.

Mohammed Yunus won the Nobel price in 2006 for his achievements.