Grameen Family-Banking on the poor

On our behalf, kindly congratulate Professor Yunus on getting the Nobel Peace Prize. It is just fantastic and very well deserved Prize. I also congratulate you for your efforts in making that happen. KTH/SPIDER may make some publicity of our involvement with Grameen Bank/Grameen Communications and Professor Yunus.

I am overjoyed and exhilarated that Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. This is a proud moment for the microfinance movement and a powerful affirmation for the millions of poor people around the world. Professor Yunus is an extraordinary visionary whose unshakeable belief in the power of people to help themselves escape poverty

has become a rallying call across the globe. Today, the experiment he launched in 1976 with a mere $26 has swelled into a movement that has reached almost 100 million poor people with financial services.

Professor Yunus' dream is to put poverty in a museum, and he has been an inspiration to me and to countless others. By bestowing this award on Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank, the Nobel Prize committee is sending a powerful message that you cannot have world peace while billions live in abject poverty, and 1,200 children die each hour from preventable diseases. Microcredit is not the panacea for all that ails the world, but it is a critical step in helping millions of poor men and women take their first steps to a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

P.S. A special thank you to all of our supporters and friends who have believed in the mission of Grameen Bank and have carried it forward with your gifts and energy. I look forward to continuing to work together towards Professor Yunus' dream to put poverty in a museum by bringing the power of microfinance to more and more of the world's poor.

The famine in '74 touched him deeply. The sight of the dying in the streets made him question the validity of the economic theoories that he espoused. During this soul searching he mixed intimately with the villagers and learnt of their habits, their values and their problems. One of them was a woman who made Moras (bamboo stools). She was skilled and conscientious and worked

long hours. He was appalled when he discovered that she earned only eight annas (about one pence) for her daily labour! Angered and dismayed, he sought out the reasons for this shamefully unfair setup.

It had long been claimed that laziness, lack. of skill, and extreme conservativeness was the root cause of poverty in Bangladesh. Here was a woman who was skilled, worked extremely hard and had taken the initiative of setting up a business for herself and was still being cruelly exploited. She did not have the money to buy the bamboo, so she had to borrow from the trader. He paid a price for the finished stool which was barely the price of the raw materials. She ended up with a penny a day! With the help of a student Emnath, Yunus made up a list of 42 people who worked under similar conditions. He paid out their total capital requirement of Taka 826 (less than a pound per head) from his own pocket. It was a loan, but it was interest free.

Congratulations on your award of the Nobel Peace Prize 2006! You have been a hero cited by President Clinton and many others. Now your good work and the work of Grameen Bank shall be recorded with the contributors of greatness – the Nobel Prize. I sincerely honor you and your contributions to humanity. Let the Universe clap for your goodness!

Brenda Palmer Takahashi
Texas
A&M
University
Ph.D. Program in Urban and Regional Science
713.591.2025
takahashi@tamu.edu

Please accept my heartfelt congratulations for the Nobel Peace Prize for Mr. Muhammad Yunus. I am a great fan of Mr. Yunus since I have known him. He deserved this prize and I would like to congratulate all the people of Bangladesh and friends around the world.

Today I introduced him and his work to the students of my mathematics class and felt extremely honored to have done so. Mr. Yunus has made us fell proud.

Best regards,
Dr. Muhammad Ali Yousuf
Robotics, Automation and Educational Technologies Research Group
Tecnologico de Monterrrey ? Santa Fe Campus
Mexico City , Mexico

I would like to congratulate you for the Nobel Prize you truly deserve. I remember talking to you as a student at Colgate University when you visited our campus in the U.S. I wanted to do an intership at the Grameen Bank after having studied about your efforts to eradicate poverty and regret it never worked out for one reason or another. I am currently working with Morgan Stanley in New York - a different sort of bank with different sort of credits - and even though means could vary along the way, I believe the truly noble goals are only a few. Yours is one of them.

Pavlin Kumchev
Morgan Stanley | Investment Banking Division
1585 Broadway | Floor 32
New York , NY 10036
Phone: +1 212 761-3178
Fax: +1 212 507-3830
Pavlin.Kumchev@morganstanley.com