We posted on Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Here is a nice Interview with Mohammad Yunus:
So microcredit can be a social business. I don’t lend money to the poor people to make money myself. I lend money to the people to help them get out of poverty, so I can keep the interest rate low, because I don’t need to make money for myself. As long as I can cover the cost and run the company, that’s good enough. So that’s the idea for social business. So once we include this into the business world, tremendous things can happen in poverty alleviation, in nutrition, in health care, in child care, you name it — whatever problem we see around the world can be framed, can be designed as a social business and address that.
Today we leave everything to the government. Let government solve all the problems. We citizens are free, we’re busy making money. That’s not the way it should be. We citizens, we individuals, are capable people addressing social issues. Maybe address a small social issue within my neighborhood, maybe within my district, within my village. Government has to cover the whole country, that’s the only difference. But I’m more innovative than the government. I’m more enterprising than the government.
Related: Harnessing Capitalism to Improve the World – Microfinancing Entrepreneurs – Deming on the Purpose of Organizations
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Google Alerts brought me to your post on Muhammad Yunus.
I’m tracking Yunus through Google Alerts because I am trying to find people to help promote his affiliate the Grameen Foundation to people who visit the philanthropy board of the investment site The Motley Fool. If you would like to share your knowledge of microcredit with us there please go to http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=26084222
It’s free to read and to post, but posting takes registration. In the past when we succeeded in getting Grameen to be what they call a “Foolanthropy” it has resulted in over $100,000 going to the Foundation.
A brief statement of your knowledge of microcredit and Professor Yunus will be most helpful.
P.S. Click on “Foolanthropy 2007” in the right hand column for background.