BANGLADESH/USA: "Banker of the Poor" Muhammad Yunus reacts to winning the Nobel Peace Prize

Bangladeshis hailed their nation's Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday (October 13), "banker to the poor" Muhammad Yunus who launched his microcredit system from one of the world's most poverty-stricken countries. Hundreds of friends and admirers gathered at his Dhaka residence with flowers and garlands to greet the man who set up Grameen Bank in 1976 to lend to the very poorest in his native Bangladesh. "I am happy that a Bangladeshi's work has been recognised by the world, we could give a gift to the world, it is a great pride for our nation. It will erect our head and we will be encouraged to do more big works.. The work we did aimed at eradicating poverty, we will work more on that so that no man remains poor," Muhammad Yunus said. News of the award is likely to give the country a much-needed boost and welcome distraction from never-ending strikes and political infighting ahead of elections next year. The disaster-prone country is one of the world's most densely populated. Many of its 140 million people struggle to eke out a living -- just the sort of client Yunus's bank aims to help. The victors were surprise winners of the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.36 million) award from a field of 191 candidates. "I am very happy, very enthusiastic. I am proud of this day. It's a matter of great happiness for me personally, for my family and for all the families of the Grameen bank. We know that it is the highest honour and so all of us are elated. We want to treasure it so that we can be proud of our achievement even in the future, so that we can bring newer developments for the world in the future," Muhammad Yunus said. The victors were surprise winners of the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.36 million) award from a field of 191 candidates. . Yunus's efforts to haul street vendors, cobblers and small farmers out of poverty in his native Bangladesh with tiny loans have sown the seeds of a global multi-billion dollar industry. "Dr, Yunus has spent 30 years developing a breakthrough approach to helping the poor help themselves get out of poverty and its really not received anywhere near the recognition given the fact we have a global poverty crisis. What we've tried to do with Grameen Foundation is to support the growth of his work internationally to globalize a solution and have it work in Africa, in Latin America, or wherever, and getting attention for that has been very slow and recognizing his work in Bangladesh and how it can affect the whole global poverty situation, nothing can be bigger than this," Alex Counts, CEO and President of the Grameen Foundation said. Yunus, 66, set up a new kind of bank in 1976 to give credit to the very poorest in his native Bangladesh, particularly women, enabling them to start up small businesses. In doing so, he invented microcredit, a system that has been copied in more than 100 nations from the United States to Uganda Yunus's brainchild, the microcredit - an unsecured loan of as little as $100 - has become common currency in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East and is even gaining ground in richer countries. "What the Nobel Committee, I think is trying to recognize here, draw attention to is that if you're going to attack the issue of poverty, you have major implications for world peace and Dr. Yunus is at the absolute forefront of developing practical solutions to reducing poverty," Alex Counts said. The microcredit is also moving steadily towards the mainstream of international finance as banks see ways of scrutinising microcredits -- packaging them and selling them on to investors -- and also offering their clients the chance to invest in them. Over the years, women have comprised the vast proportion of borrowers of the Grameen bank, enabling them to start up small businesses without collateral. The bank lends to 6.6 million people, 96 percent of them women.

ITN Source | October 14, 2006

Tags:. .aimed. .gaining. .counts. .absolute. .spent