Muhammad Yunus: The Poor Are Not Left Behind 4/26/2012 3:21:42 PM
Economist Muhammad Yunus, the former head of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on microlending in developing countries, says advances in simple personal technology will allow the world's poor to participate more fully in the global economy of the future. He speaks with WSJ's John Bussey.
Monday, Apr 16, 2012
Small Loans, Big Dreams
Portfolio.com
Think all the upstart entrepreneurs come out of elite schools with big tech ideas and a pipeline of cash from venture capitalists? Think again. For Nicole Gates, it didn't take much to give her business a boost. She needed just $1,500 to take her New York catering business Soul Sister Quisine to the next level by providing food at a street fair in Brooklyn. That's too small a loan for most banks, and a venture capitalist would have snorted at the prospect of investing in such a small operation.
Professor Yunus honored for his work lifting lives through loans
CNN Money
In the early 1970s Muhammad Yunus was teaching economic theory to students in a university classroom in Bangladesh. But outside the campus of Chittagong University, all he saw was crushing hunger and poverty. His desire to do something to help the local citizens led to a simple but powerful gesture: Yunus loaned $27 to destitute basket weavers in a village next to his university's campus.
New York hairdresser Lissette recently set up a new business to provide home services to the elderly and home-bound - cutting and dyeing their hair. What makes Lissette stand out is that she was a low-income hairdresser in a salon who wanted to strike out on her own. The problem was that she needed money for supplies. At first, she told Grameen America, a microfinance institution: "I went to see a loan shark. But the interest is a lot."
Retail: Stock Up Your Cupboards, Empower a Business
Omaha World Herald
Shoppers at Whole Foods Market in Omaha can stock their cupboards and fill their fridges while helping low-income entrepreneurs in Omaha to launch and sustain their own businesses. On Tuesday, 5 percent of net sales at Whole Foods Market near West Dodge Road and Regency Parkway will be donated to the Omaha branch of Grameen America, a nonprofit organization that provides microloans to financially empower low-income entrepreneurs.
Bangladesh's Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the concept of providing small, unsecured loans to the poor is "frustrated" by the controversies surrounding microcredit. The Nobel Peace Prize winner tells CNBC's Christine Tan that microfinance still works.
Grameen America Partners With Whole Planet Foundation To Empower Low-Income Entrepreneurs
Huffington Post
To empower entrepreneurs in low-income communities, Whole Foods Market's foundation has partnered with a microfinance organization to help budding businesses get off of the ground. Nobel Peace recipient Muhammad Yunus revolutionized the use of micro-loans as a way for women to fight their way out of poverty when he started started Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
For the Wall Street Occupier: "This not-for-profit microfinance organization, started by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, opened a Bronx branch (its fourth in New York City) in August. The goal: jump-start the careers of low-income entrepreneurs by offering crowd-sourced, collateral-free micro-loans. (In New York alone, the group has distributed some $20 million in loans to more than 6,500 borrowers.) Make a donation of $10, $20, or $30 a month on behalf of a loved one, and struggling locals enjoy reasonable interest rates, a manageable weekly repayment plan, and savings incentives."
