It is rare that I idolise someone, but there are a few exceptional souls whom I cannot stop myself from worshipping. One of these rare idols is Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Yunus and his bank are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2006.
The Bangladeshi economist Yunus, through the Grameen Bank he founded, pioneered micro-credits in Bangladesh in the 1970s, providing small business loans to poor people without collateral. Millions of people benefiting from the small loans have worked out of poverty through their own development.
According to a report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yunus’s first loan was pocket money – $27 to a group of 42 women – and his next loans were $100 and $200, amounts he borrowed from a local bank, with himself as the guarantor. He set up Grameen Bank in 1983, and since then he has guided the bank’s development and led banks and governments outside Bangladesh in applying micro-lending principles in their own countries and communities.
He proves that he can turn his vision into reality, and that by living close to the people and being “sur le terrain”.
The official press release of The Nobel Foundation announcing the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 states: “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty.” Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. Although the Foundation considers that this vision cannot be realised by means of micro-credit alone, micro-credit can play a major part in it.
There is a sublime quote from Yunus: “One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.” What a bold and compassionate vision! What a beautiful soul!
