Dr Muhammad Yunus

This blog would be remiss if it did not have an item on the great Dr Muhammad Yunus,founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
Dr Yunus has created a practical vehicle for the concept of micro-finance,initially only operating in Bangladesh The Grameen Bank,under his guidance and inspiration has empowered thousands of poor people in the country,to create small businesses which slowly but surely take them out of poverty.
Discarding conventional credit scoring techniques,which would be utterly useless,he developed a system that looks at the problem first,rather than the solution.
He encouraged the creation of groups of people who would take out loans to start small enterprises,with the groups themselves monitoring the repayment process.If my understanding is right a parallel savings scheme is created.
As a result over $156 million has been loaned with a repayment record of 97%;this in itself is an outstanding achievement and every year the system continues to take people out of poverty.
In 2006 Dr Yunus together with The Grameen Bank were awarded The Nobel Peace Prize for their contribution to innovative solutions in the war on poverty.
Please visit The Grameen Bank site where you will gain a fuller understanding of their aims and methodologies and I highly recommend you becoming a supporter.