Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World PovertyThe “stirring” (Washington Post) story of how Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus invented microcredit, founded the Grameen Bank, and transformed the fortunes of millions of poor people around the world In 1983, Muhammad Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Twenty-three years later they won the Nobel Prize for Peace for their work in eradicating poverty. This is an inspiring story of one man’s realization that access to even a small amount of credit can transform the lives of the poorest citizens of the world. Yunus aimed to help the poor by supporting the spark of personal initiative and enterprise by which they could lift themselves out of poverty forever. It was an idea born on a day in 1976 when he loaned $27 from his own pocket to forty-two people living in a tiny village. These microentrepreneurs only needed enough credit to purchase the raw materials for their trade. Yunus’s small loan helped them break the cycle of poverty for good. His solution to world poverty, founded on the belief that credit is a fundamental human right, is brilliantly simple: lend poor people money on terms that are suitable to them, teach them a few sound financial principles, and they will help themselves. Yunus’s theories work. Grameen Bank has provided loans totaling six billion dollars to seven million families in rural Bangladesh. Today, more than 250 institutions in nearly 100 countries operate micro-credit programs based on the Grameen methodology, placing Grameen at the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through micro-lending. |
Contents
CHAPTER THREE Back in Chittagong | |
CHAPTER FOUR The Stool Makers of Jobra Village | |
CHAPTER FIVE A Pilot Project Is Born | |
CHAPTER SIX Expanding Beyond Jobra into Tangail | |
CHAPTER SEVEN A Bank for the Poor Is Born | |
CHAPTER NINE Applications in Other Poor Countries | |
CHAPTER TEN Applications in the United States and Other Wealthy Countries | |
CHAPTER ELEVEN Grameen in the Nineties | |
A New World of Grameen Enterprises | |
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Grameen Bank II | |
CHAPTER FOURTEEN The Future | |
A PREVIEW OF CREATING A WORLD WITHOUT POVERTY | |
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION | |
CHAPTER EIGHT Growth and Challenges for the Bank for the Poor 19841990 | |
Other editions - View all
Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty Muhammad Yunus Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Anisuzzaman asked bamboo Bangladesh bank workers bankers become Begum Bengali called Central Bank Chittagong District Chittagong University Clinton create credit programs Dhaka donor earn economic enterprises experience Fund Grameen Bank Grameen borrowers Grameen branch Grameen Telecom Grameen Trust GrameenPhone husband institutions investment investors Janata Bank Jobra join Grameen leaders lend lives loan Malaysia meeting micro-credit programs million mother Mufia Muhammad Yunus Muhith Murshida Muslim never Nurjahan operating organizations Pakistan People’s percent person Philippines poor poorest poverty poverty line poverty-free world problems profit proposal purdah repayment replication programs rice rural sell social business social entrepreneurs staff Sufiya summit taka takas Tangail Tangail district telephone tubewell United village village phones visited woman women World Bank Yunus