Professor Muhammad Yunus, A Great Humanitarian
I have a tremendous admiration for Professor Yunus, "the banker of the poor". Actually he is on my list of heroes along with Dr.Paul Farmer.
Dr. Yunus was born in 1940 in Bangladesh. He came from a large family of 14 children. His parents were well to do and encouraged them to pursue their education. Dr. Yunus was very much influenced by his mom as how to treat poor people. When he was an economy teacher, he started an experiment by lending tiny amounts of money to some village women. Soon after, he could see that the women were doing very well and he continued to do his work with them.
In 1983, he established the Grameen Bank, meaning "village bank". The bank has helped thousands and thousands of extremely poor women from Bangladesh come out of destitution.
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2006 Peace Nobel Prize
Professor Yunus won the 2006 Peace Nobel Prize with the Grameen Bank.He has been called a "true man of peace".
The Nobel Peace Prize committee said that Dr. Yunus has done more to help the world than virtually anyone alive today.
He promised to give his $1.4 million prize money to good causes. Some of othe money might go to form a company that would make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor.
Blogs About Dr. Yunus
A Few Notes About Grameen Bank
Grameen Foundation works to reach the world's neediest people across four continents.According to their site "Microfinance - a powerful poverty-fighting tool: Microfinance helps people to escape poverty by giving them collateral-free loans and other financial services to support income-generating businesses. As each loan is repaid, the money is redistributed as loans to others, thereby mulitiplying its impact. For Fatima, a FONDEP client in Morocco, the loans have helped her build a business and new horizons for her children."
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Grameen Bank now has more than 2,000 branches, and employs more than 20,000 people, and has loaned more than $6 billion since its humble beginning.
Pennies A Day
Quotes From Professor Yunus
We have to get out of this mindset that the rich will do the business and the poor will have the charity.
I strongly believe that we can create a poverty-free world, if we want to.... In that kind of world, [the] only place you can see poverty is in the museum. When school children will be on a tour of the poverty museum, they will be horrified to see the misery and indignity of human beings. They will blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhuman condition to continue in a massive way.
"First we need to redesign the financial system to make it an inclusive system. Every person in the world will have easy access to this system. Grameen has proved that it can be done," he said.
"Secondly we have to make sure (the banking sector) never has to come back for taxpayers' bailouts for their mistakes."
Social Entrepreneurship
Well worth the time spent on watching it.
Social Entrepreneurs: Pioneering Social Change
The Skoll Foundation has recently completed a short film about the field of social entrepreneurship. Its a great overview of the progress made over the last three decades. It starts with Mohammad Yunus and includes interviews with a number of social entrepreneurs and others in the field, including Sally Osberg of the Skoll Foundation, Bill Drayton of Ashoka, Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund, John Elkington of Volans, and author David Bornstein. For more information on these and other social entreprenuers, visit www.skollfoundation.org
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Books On Micro Finance And Poverty
The Economics of Microfinance
Amazon Price: $17.66 (as of 01/06/2010) 
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
Amazon Price: $17.81 (as of 01/06/2010)
A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and The Business Solution for Ending Poverty
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 01/06/2010)
Poverty Is NOT a Learning Disability: Equalizing Opportunities for Low SES Students
Amazon Price: $28.95 (as of 01/06/2010)
Micro Finance and Poverty Eradication: Indian and Global Experiences
Amazon Price: (as of 01/06/2010)
Websites About Dr.Yunus
A great site with lots of photos and information on Dr. Yunus. Dr.Yunus OrgMore opinions on Dr.Yunus
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- Pastiche Pastiche Jul 9, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
- Thank you for making me aware of this Nobel Peace Prize winnter, Professor Yunus. Welcome to Senior Geek Squids group!
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- nextyunus nextyunus Mar 16, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
- I am building a lense by myslef at the moment about the best speaches/documentaries and interviews with Muhammand Yunus. Check it out!
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- Cajean Cajean Dec 1, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
- A very nice lens and great to again hear about this kind man wanting to help others help themselves. This is real compassion in action, without enabling further dependency. And his model is definitely capitalism... which obviously works better than socialism. People just feel better about themselves when working. 5* for you, and thanks for the kind comments on my lens. :-)
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- JaguarJulie JaguarJulie Nov 29, 2008 @ 11:17 am
- Wow! I learned something new today -- 'Professor Yunus won the 2006 Peace Nobel Prize with the Grameen Bank.' Did NOT know that!
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- TheWhistler TheWhistler Sep 16, 2008 @ 4:16 pm
- A remarkable man, with a remarkable idea.
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- mulberry mulberry Aug 30, 2008 @ 7:02 am
- Individuals can make a difference. Thank you for telling us about this man.
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