Nobel prize winner is 'Micro Credit Team'

Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work in advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, particularly women.

The bank for helping the poor, Grameen Bank which Yunus founded gives out loans toward buying items such as cows to start a dairy, chickens for an egg business, or mobile phones to start businesses where villagers who have no access to phones pay a small fee to make calls.

Here are some facts that hold exciting promise in reducing poverty.


1)Realising that small amounts of credit could revolutionise the fate of poor communities, Yunus started by lending the equivalent of $27 to a group of female basket weavers to expand their businesses.

The idea was the seed for the Grameen Bank, which was formed in 1983 to extend banking facilities and improve the provision of credit to the rural poor.


2)Yunus' philosophy is to help the poor help themselves. He never responds when a beggar holds out his or her hand for money. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world.

Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.

Grameen Bank has helped millions of poor Bangladeshis, many of them women, improve their standard of living by letting them borrow small sums to start businesses.


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