This man is my hero

Dr. Mohammad Yunus, a professor, economist and banker from Bangladesh was announced as Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2006 today.

Why did they give it to him for "Peace" and not for "Economics" ? You'll love the answer - "Because he worked to remove poverty and removing poverty is key for maintaining the world peace". In the Nobel laurate's own words, "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty".

It all started with 27 dollars. Dr Yunus once met a woman who makes beautiful chairs and stools out of bamboo and sells. He came to know that she makes just 2 cents in the whole day out of this business of hers. He didn't understand why anyone with such wonderful art and skill should work for such pittance. She told him that she doesn't have enough money to buy bamboo. So, she has to borrow money from a trader who loans money. The loan condition is that she has to sell him the finished product at the price he decides. As a result, she never made more than 2 cents on her work. The money she borrowed is less than 20 cents.

Dr Yunus asked his student to research and find out how many people are there, in need of small amounts like this woman. He came up with a list of 42 people and the amount of loan they needed to put their lives on track is a mere 27 dollars. Dr Yunus loaned them this money out of his pocket. This enabled them to sell their product whereever they got a good price. He later approached banks to ask loans for the poor people and the banks turned him down saying the poor are not "credit-worthy".

This was the beginning of "Grameena Bank" started by Dr Yunus for giving small amount loans (microcredit) to poor people. This started way back in 1974 and now Grameena bank has over 30,000 thousand branches in villages of Bangladesh. They lend money to over 1.5 million borrowers. The average loan is 75 dollars. Repayment rate is 98% . This bank works exclusively for the poor people. The Grameena bank's microcredit model has been exported to poor nations around the world.

While the traditional banking system is designed to be anti-poor and anti-women, Dr Yusuf's revolutionary microcredit banking system is exclusively designed to empower poor and women in particular. That is why I say the Nobel peace prize can find no better candidate than Dr Yusuf.

Lastly, this great man says he wants to start a company that makes low-cost, high-nutrition food for poor with the 1.4 million dollar Nobel prize money. He wants to construct an eye hospital to serve poor with the remaining money.

Isn't he your hero too ???