 Article submitted by Anette Wallstrom of Stockholm, Sweden.
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The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 was awarded jointly to Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic & social development through micro-credit loans to very poor people who have no financial security and so little chance of working to bring about their own development.
Born in 1940 in Chittagong, what was then Eastern Bengal, Muhammad Yunus was the third of 14 children. Educated in Chittagong and in Nashville USA, in 1972 he became head of the Economics Department at Chittagong University and in 1994 founded the Grameen Bank (which means "village bank") on the basis of trust & solidarity. Professor Yunus led the world's first Micro Credit Summit in Washington, DC in 1997.
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Muhammad Yunus has been called a bone-fide visionary who's long term vision is to elinimate poverty in the world. He strongly believes every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. From those modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.
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94% of loans are to women and 98% of all loans are paid back in full - far higher than in any "western" banking system. Although operating in more than 58 counries worldwide including the U.S. Canada, France, Norway etc. it's main seat of operation is still in Bangladesh where it has 2.1 million customers in 37,000 villages
The Grameen family of trusts now comprises various Companies including Communications, Knitwear, education, energy, telecoms & Cybernet - many of them "not for profit" organisations
"By giving poor people the power to help themselves, Dr Yunus has offered them something far more valuable than a plate of food. He has offered them security in its most fundamental form." Former US President Jimmy Carter
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For more details: www.grameen-info.org/Media/mediadetail6.html
Article sponsored by Hodgson Sealants - 
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