The founder of Grameen Bank, a microenterprise bank that has helped more than two million people start small businesses, will speak at Brigham Young University on Tuesday, 20 March. Dr. Muhammad Yunus will address “Poverty Solutions that Work” in the Joseph Smith Building auditorium at 3:15 p.m. Dr. Yunus’s speech is open to BYU students, faculty, staff and the public.
“Muhammad Yunus is widely known as the father of micro credit,” said Donald Adolphson, professorof business management at BYU’s Marriott School. “He has devoted much of his life to helping the poor and looks to the day when ‘poverty will be banished to museums.’”
The Grameen Bank’s approach to banishing poverty is centered on self-reliance. Through training, consulting and small loans, the bank helps borrowers start small businesses. These microenterprises in turn help alleviate poverty by boosting local economies and improving health and education. Started in 1976, the Grameen Bank now has 1,084 branches that assist nearly 37,000 villages in Bangladesh. It has loaned more than $1 billion in credit and has a 97 percent payback rate.
Dr. Yunus earned a PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University and received an honorary doctorate from BYU in 1998. His address is a primer for the Marriott School’s Fourth Annual Microenterprise Conference 5-7 April 2001. The free conference, the largest of its kind, brings together educators, investors and non-governmental organizations involved in microenterprise around the world. Large group presentations and small-action oriented workshops are planned to help both experienced volunteers and interested newcomers get involved in various aspects of microenterprise.
For conference information and pre-registration, visit the web at www.microenterprise.byu.edu or call(801) 378-6690.
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Writer: Carrie Beckstead (801) 378-1512
