Creating a Poverty-Free World
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I had the privilege to listen to Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize award a couple months ago. Only until today did I have the chance to dig through the notes that I took from his talk. It is still amazing!
For those of you who are not familiar with Dr. Muhammad Yunus’s work, Dr. Yunus is often referred to as “the world’s banker to the poor”. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is also one of the pioneers of micro-credit lending schemes for the poor, especially women, in Bangladesh.
He started his first loan in 1976 (one year before I was born) with only $27. With that little amount of money, he was able to help 42 women from the village of Jobra, near the university where he taught to start businesses. No conventional bank was willing to lend to these women because they were too poor and had no credit.
Here were the criteria for Dr.Yunus’ borrowers:
- No collateral needed
- No lawyers needed
- No guarantee needed
- No time limit
- No interest
- The less you have you more you get
- If you have nothing you have the highest priority
Dr. Yunus said: “We want to inspire them not to scare them. We look for someone who have never done anything before. We are not interested in the past of our borrower. Let’s start with our future. We don’t want to be in the digging business. We are into the future business.”
Yunus also discussed: “No borrower would ever drop out because of money because they are part of our family. We want to be their family. I am constantly inspired by the people we help and I had no idea beggars could do so much things.”
Here is a video I found which gives a good overview of Dr. Yunus’ work:
Can you imagine a world with no poor people, a true poverty-free world?
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edith | Career & Businesses, Attitude, Money & financial Independence, Motivation & Passion
Really interesting article on great topic which I think everyone should think about at this time when there are so many people in the world who die everyday due to lack of food-actually due to poverty.
I heard about Yunus after he received the Nobel prize and really inspired by his wonderful work. Let me make clear that I have heard some reports that here in my country as well, some people have initiated the same type of work as done by Yunus to decrease the poverty.
About whether we can create this world without poverty or not, I say yes but this is really very hard work than our imagination. We have to do many-many works and there should be thousands Yunus.
Linked to you from the festival over at Chief Financial Officer’s site. I read about this man a few years ago and think he is doing wonderful work. I don’t think we’ll ever officially eliminate poverty because some people will always have more than others and those with the least will still be considered poor. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t work to the goal of helping people provide for their basic needs and at least some of their wants.
I was watching a PBS special on solar power and alternative energy a few weeks ago and one of the clips showed some small solar installations in poor African villages that store power during the day so lights can be powered at night, providing enough illumination so that children could study and pursue their studies at night. Think of the uses for something like that, such as water sanitation/sterilization. No need to run power lines but the benefits, at least on a small scale, can be available.
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